ENGLISH PREMIER BETTING PICK - HULL CITY V MANCHESTER UNITED

English Premier

2009-12-27 - Hull City vs Manchester United

A Sports Betting Pick by Cruiser

Analysis:

With Chelsea dropping points against Birmingham yesterday Manchester United knows this will be their best chance to close the gap to the league leaders. United is still hampered by their defence but is hoping that attack is the best form of defence to get the three points here.

The Red Devils will be eager to come back after being humiliated by Fulham 3-0 in their last match at Craven Cottage. They were without up to six of their regular defenders and that left them badly exposed at the back and Fulham made full use of it to beat them. Ritchie De Laet, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher played at the back against Fulham but they were beaten comprehensively by Roy Hodgson's men.

Ferguson admitted after that he could use the same system against Hull today despite being torn apart by the Cottagers. Despite the heavy loss, United can close the gap to just two points since Chelsea drew with Birmingham last night.

Hull City will no doubt make life hard for the champions, with manager Phil Brown seemingly easing the pressure off his shoulders after a number of good results in the past month. However, they are coming into this match without a win in three games, but it must be noted that two of those games are against the likes of Aston Villa and Arsenal.

Hull are also unbeaten at home in six games but now they are second from the bottom as teams beneath them have managed to win their games, for example West Ham. And the fact that Hull have scored just 17 goals in the league this season, the second worst tally in the top flight, so it remains to be seen if they can actually test United's shaky defence here even without their recognized defenders.

As for the team news, Hull have just two injuries but it is to their most influential players in Jimmy Bullard, as the midfielder has been ruled out for six to eight weeks after injuring his knee at Aston Villa. Also out is midfielder Ian Ashbee remains sidelined while he recovers from his own serious knee injury.

For Manchester United, Brazilian twins Rafael and Fabio Da Silva will start this match after both have been rushed back. That could mean Patrice Evra moving from left-back to central defence alongside Carrick here. Sir lex Ferguson hopes that Nemanja Vidic (calf) or Wes Brown (hamstring) can at least recover in time for this match.

Fellow defender Jonny Evans (calf) remains out of the lineup but could feature against Wigan in midweek. Gary Neville (groin), John O'Shea (thigh) and Rio Ferdinand (back) look certain to miss out once more. Tomasz Kuszczak will once again start in goal as Edwin Van der Sar looks no nearer to recovering from the knee injury he picked up in the 3-0 win over Everton.

Ryan Giggs (hamstring) looks likely to be absent again while Nani (foot), Owen Hargreaves (knee) and Federico Macheda (hamstring) completes United's long list of injuries.

Take Manchester United to win and give the 1 1/4 ball here.

Cheers and good luck,
Cruiser

The Pick :

BEST BETTING TIP :

Take Manchester United to win here.