Manchester United vs Sunderland Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-11-05 - Manchester United vs Sunderland

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Manchester United v Sunderland
Football : English Premier League
Saturday 5 November 2011 - Kickoff 3pm

Manchester United

After 25 years in charge of things at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson has already cemented his legacy in English Football, but his desire and passion shows no sign of waning. He will send a Manchester United team out on Saturday that is still trying to remove the painful memories of his 'worst day in football' the last time they came out at Old Trafford in a Premier League fixture.

A hard fought 0-1 win at Everton last week meant Manchester United kept in touch with rivals Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, with the latter currently leading the way by 5 points.

This game is played before Manchester City take to the field so United will look to do what they did last week and close the gap for a couple of hours at least. They are 4-0-1 at home this season so far, scoring a League-high 17 goals and conceding 9. Only two teams have conceded more home goals than United, although that has been skewed by the result against Manchester City.

Since the drubbing by City, United have got back on the horse to a certain extent by winning 3 games in a row in all competitions and more importantly building confidence by claiming 3 clean sheets too. The team beat Otelul Galati 2-0 at home on Wednesday, but the performance was not that impressive although they did defend well for the most part.

Nemanja Vidic returns to the squad after missing the win on Wednesday through suspension and I would be extremely surprised if he doesn't earn one of the centre half positions after a towering performance at Everton last week.

Chris Smalling, Ashley Young, Tom Cleverley and Rafael are all out until after the international break. Michael Owen and Ryan Giggs are big doubts, but the likes of Patrice Evra, Darren Fletcher and Danny Welbeck will be hoping to be restored to the starting line up.

Sunderland

A dark cloud remains above the Stadium of Light as the future of Steve Bruce as manager remains a big talking point. The team have been picking up in terms of performances, but it is results that will save Bruce now as a slide towards the bottom of the table becomes troubling to fans and owners alike.

The Black Cats did move up to 14th in the League table last weekend courtesy of the 1 point picked up against Aston Villa which takes their tally to 10 for the season. They have a 1-2-2 record away from home, scoring 5 goals and conceding 5, with only Manchester United and Newcastle conceding less goals on their travels so far. The other way to look at things is that Sunderland are actually one of the lowest scorers away from home too.

Sunderland had won just 1 of their first 9 games in all competitions as the pressure on Steve Bruce increased, but 4 points from their last 2 Premier League games may have given him a stay of execution. They won their last away game at Bolton Wanderers in a game they dominated and have also earned a point at Liverpool. It took a late Robin Van Persie goal to prevent the team taking a point from Arsenal too, so they have shown some heart and character away from home.

Simon Mignolet broke his nose last weekend in the game with Aston Villa and looks set to miss this game with Kieren Westwood making his first start for the club in goal. John O'Shea looks unlikely to be passed fit to face his former club, but Wes Brown, Phil Bardsley and Kieron Richardson could all start.

Head to Head

Manchester United beat Sunderland 2-0 here last season, making it the 3rd straight Premier League game against them where they have kept a clean sheet.

United have won 3 of the last 4 games between the teams at Old Trafford, and have kept clean sheets in all 3 wins.

Prediction

This is a fairly hard game to get a bet on as the 'Asian Handicap', 'Anytime Goalscorer' and 'Over 2.5 Goals' markets all being priced up a little low for me to take an interest.

Instead I am going to focus on Manchester United to win this game 'to nil' as it has been clear from the last 3 performances that they are concentrating on trying to defend better than they have been all season. The return of Nemanja Vidic has made it possible for them to do so as he brings a calming, but decisive, figure at the centre back position and breeds confidence in the rest of the back 5.

United have a habit of keeping clean sheets in games against Sunderland, especially at Old Trafford, and 7 of the last 9 Premier League games has seen the Black Cats fail to score against them.

I think United should be good enough to grab a goal against a team that has kept 1 clean sheet in 5 Premier League away games, although it could take a little while to get the first goal against a team that will look to compress space for the forward players.

At a price of evens, the 'win to nil' looks the best option for me here.

The Statistics :

MAN_UTD LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-10-23	L	1-6	H v Man_City
	2011-10-01	W	2-0	H v Norwich
	2011-09-18	W	3-1	H v Chelsea
	2011-08-28	W	8-2	H v Arsenal
	2011-08-22	W	3-0	H v Tottenham
	2011-05-22	W	4-2	H v Blackpool

SUNDERLAND LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-10-22	W	0-2	A v Bolton
	2011-10-16	L	2-1	A v Arsenal
	2011-09-26	L	2-1	A v Norwich
	2011-08-27	D	0-0	A v Swansea
	2011-08-13	D	1-1	A v Liverpool
	2011-05-22	W	0-3	A v West_Ham

HEAD TO HEAD MAN_UTD v SUNDERLAND
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2010-12-26	Man_Utd	2-0	Sunderland
2009-10-03	Man_Utd	2-2	Sunderland
2008-12-06	Man_Utd	1-0	Sunderland
2007-09-01	Man_Utd	1-0	Sunderland
2006-04-14	Man_Utd	0-0	Sunderland
2003-01-01	Man_Utd	2-1	Sunderland