1st place Manchester United travel to play 9th place Southampton on Saturday. The Red Devils enter this match joint top of the table with Manchester City – 13 points, 16 goals scored and just 2 conceded. Stoke City are the only team so far to win points and to score against Manchester United and the Saints will try to copy that performance when hosting the Red Devils. United have won five of their last six matches in all the competition by a margin of two goals or more, keeping five clean sheets in the process. United’s Romelu Lukaku and City’s Sergio Aguero are joint top scorers in the Premier League with 5 goals scored each after five rounds. They are the players to watch this season as they are both fighting to win the Golden Boot award. Mauricio Pellegrino\’s team looked organized against Crystal Palace as they secured their 3rd clean sheet in five league games having no mercy on Crystal Palace (the 1st club in the Premier League history to lose their opening five games without scoring) and their new boss Roy Hodgson. Pellegrino introduced Virgil van Dijk from the bench giving him 5 minutes to play and the opportunity to make his 1st appearance since his long summer transfer saga.
The Saints biggest issue is that they failed to score in two of their last three home matches losing 0-2 with Watford and earning 1 point from the goalless draw against Swansea. They will surely struggle to find the back of the net against a rock-solid United defense. Southampton have more days to recover as they are not playing in the midweek, having been eliminated from the Carabao Cup by Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1st round. Southampton have failed to score in nine of their last 11 home games. The match against the Red Devils will be Southampton’s toughest one so far. Manchester United are unbeaten in their last nine visits to Southampton in all competitions and they are huge favourites to win also this clash. They are priced at a beautiful 1.81 with green listed bookmaker Pinnacle, a price that can’t be ignored, a price that will surely drop so we should take advantage of it. We expect a clear away win with the Red Devils continuing their excellent run.
Paul Pogba is out with a hamstring injury picked up in the Champions League and will be miss this match. Luke Shaw has returned from injury but remains a doubt being unlikely to face the Saints. Despite being without some of their key players and playing a mid-week Cup match against Burton, Manchester United enter this match as huge favourites.
Best picks for the match:
Manchester United to win at 1.81 with Pinnacle
Manchester United to win wit -1AH (Asian Handicap) at 2.4 with Unibet
Romelu Lukaku to be anytime scorer at 2.1 with Betfair
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