Stoke City vs Manchester United Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-09-24 - Stoke City vs Manchester United

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Stoke City v Manchester United
Football : English Premier League
Saturday 24 September 2011 - Kickoff 5:30pm
This game is live on TV

Stoke City

Stoke City have already played a lot of football this season thanks to their commitments in the Europa League, and it seemed to come back and bite them when they were hammered at Sunderland last week. However, they are a totally different proposition when being backed by one of the loudest and most passionate home support in the Premier League.

The Potters are 5th in the Premier League despite their shelling at the Stadium of Light in what was their first defeat of the season. Stoke have picked up a respectable 8 points from the first 15 on offer and they have done very well to start off 1-1-0 at home considering they have played Chelsea and Liverpool at the Brittania Stadium. Stoke have only needed 1 goal and 2 clean sheets to pick up 4 points against two top 6 opponents.

The loss to Sunderland is the only one Stoke have suffered in 11 competitive games this season. They have won 3 of 5 games at home in all competitions, and drawn 0-0 with Chelsea in the League and Spurs in the Carling Cup, a game they won on penalties. Stoke have conceded just 1 goal in their 5 games at home so far this season.

Tony Pulis made a few changes to his side for the game against Spurs on Tuesday, so the likes of Asmir Begovic, Ryan Shawcross, Dean Whitehead, John Walters and Peter Crouch should be restored to the starting line up although the latter 2 did play off the bench on Tuesday.

Manchester United

Manchester United continued their strong start to the Premier League season with a win over Chelsea at Old Trafford last Sunday, but there was enough in that game that could worry supporters of the Red Devils, especially the number of chances Chelsea created. Patrice Evra was also vocal in saying they will need to play better if they really want to win the title this season.

United top the Premier League as the only club to have won all 5 of their League games this season. The away form really let the side down last season, but they have started with a 2-0-0 record this season, scoring 7 goals and conceding 1, and they have picked up 2 more points from their corresponding fixtures last season.

They are unbeaten in all 4 away games played this season, including a 0-3 win at Leeds United in the Carling Cup on Tuesday, and their only failure to win was in the 1-1 draw with Benfica.

Sir Alex Ferguson made plenty of changes for the game at Elland Road and I expect the likes of David de Gea, Nani, Ashley Young, Anderson and Wayne Rooney will all return to the side. Chris Smalling is a doubt, but Rio Ferdinand is available, but Tom Cleverley is out and Javier Hernandez is unlikely to be risked. Danny Welbeck could come in after returning off the bench at Leeds.

Head to Head

Manchester United have won all 6 Premier League games against Stoke City since they returned to the top flight.

All of the games at the Brittania have been hard fought wins for the away side, including a 1-2 win last season that came thanks to Hernandez' 2 goals.

Prediction

I have no doubt that this is the toughest away game United will have played this season in the Premier League and I would be surprised if United have as easy a day in the office as they did at the Reebok Stadium when facing Bolton.

Stoke have showed they are a match for sides at home since they moved into the top flight with wins over the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool, and they have also kept clean sheets against Chelsea and Liverpool this season.

I am looking at this game as being a close one for the first half, before United begin to exert their class and authority... much like Chelsea did when playing here on the opening day of the season.

The only difference will be, in my opinion, that United will eventually break down a Stoke team that did have a few of their first teamers out and playing for 120 minutes against Tottenham.

United have secured the win in the 2nd half when playing Stoke the first 2 times at the Brittania and they also needed a late goal to secure the 1-2 win last season so I will have a small interest on the Draw HT-Manchester United FT.

The Statistics :

STOKE_CITY LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-09-10	W	1-0	H v Liverpool
	2011-08-14	D	0-0	H v Chelsea
	2011-05-22	L	0-1	H v Wigan
	2011-05-08	W	3-1	H v Arsenal
	2011-04-26	W	3-0	H v Wolves
	2011-04-02	D	1-1	H v Chelsea

MAN_UTD LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-09-10	W	0-5	A v Bolton
	2011-08-14	W	1-2	A v WBA
	2011-05-14	D	1-1	A v Blackburn
	2011-05-01	L	1-0	A v Arsenal
	2011-04-19	D	0-0	A v Newcastle
	2011-04-02	W	2-4	A v West_Ham