Manchester United are preparing for their final Premier League game before the season is broken by this winter’s World Cup, with Erik ten Hag’s men making the trip to London to face Fulham.
Fulham have impressed this season, with Marco Silva’s side exceeding all expectations in their return to the top flight after just one season in the Championship.
United want to return to winning ways in the league after last week’s disappointing defeat to Aston Villa but will face a stern test at Craven Cottage.
Marcus Rashford is hoping to keep his great form going and the 25-year-old is one of three Reds to be included in England’s 26-man squad for the World Cup in Qatar.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s game against Fulham, Rashford has stressed the importance of ending the first half of the season on a high.
“Definitely,” Rashford is quoted as saying by the official Manchester United website when quizzed on the matter.
“You don’t want to leave on a loss as it’s never nice to lose any game of football, but at the same time, if we don’t play well we can’t just expect to win games.
“We have to defend a lot better than we did [against Aston Villa] and we always have to attack a lot better in order to help us create more chances. Hopefully against Fulham we can do that.”
SN’s verdict…
The first couple of weeks aside, the mood at United has been good this season and that has largely been down to Ten Hag’s decent start in charge.
United must win against Fulham for more than one reason. The teams in contention to finish in the top four are all at a similar level and the Reds have a chance to pull away from Chelsea after they lost to Newcastle.
Furthermore, a defeat would considerably worsen the mood and leaving that to marinate for five weeks before the campaign resumes could be ugly.
