Coming into the fourth Premier League game week since the restart, it appears as though the fortunes of either team couldn’t be any more different in the run-up to this fixture.
Whilst United seem to have gone from strength to strength with their rejuvenated squad, Bournemouth have experienced a severe drop in form – registering only a single goal in three games while losing all three of them both home and away. To put this in context, United have scored and conceded six more and fewer goals than the Cherries … and I believe that this may set the tone for what we can expect to see at Old Trafford.
Having performed dominantly in their recent outing away at Brighton, I suspect a similarly strong side to be introduced on Saturday. In fact, given Bournemouth’s similarities in style to the Seagulls, not much of the starting line-up on Tuesday may be changed.
The Cherries have failed to dominate the midfield area in recent outings, and have fallen foul to their immobile defensive line and one-dimensional counter-attacking techniques. And considering United’s forward play and creativity, we ought to expect more of the same with many of our stars rested towards the latter third of the previous game.
A 3-0 win is more than on the cards again here, though a 2-0 may be more conceivable; as I expect our key men to be rested earlier than normal in light of our upcoming fixtures. Either way, a comfortable win is expected, even if it means we need to soak up some ‘get-out-of-relegation’ pressure from our opponents.
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