England Premier League
Sunday 7th August 2022
Kick off at 2pm BST
Venue: Old Trafford
Match Preview:
There have been speed bumps for Manchester United and some high finishes, alongside some sweeping and promising football. But ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired 9 years ago Manchester United have clearly been a shadow of his great side and their era has been over for some time. It’s been a PR disaster in the background and managers have come and gone aplenty. But there is a new one in the city, Eric ten Hag who comes from Ajax, will he be just be another manager who comes in with his philosophy and soon fails or is he the one to put the club back on the map? We will soon find out.
Already his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo looks frosty with Ronaldo clearly wanting to leave this summer, and yet he is still here. It didn’t help matters much that when he was subbed in a recent friendly he went home. As for transfers United have concentrated more on defence and midfield. Lisandro Martinez has come in from Ajax with Ten Hag knowing him well. Christian Eriksen should be an excellent capture and on a free. Tyrell Malacia is a young prospect also in defence and comes from Feyenoord. United conceded 57 goals last season and so obviously Ten Hag wants to rectify and realises that United have been poor in this area.
Some high profile players have left the club including Jesse Lingard, Edinson Cavani, Paul Pogba, Andreas Pereira, Juan Mata and Nemanjic Matic but at the same time it was some of these players who should have been adding to the team who didn’t, so this could be a good move from United. In that sense this feels like a new era for the club. Pre-season has seen a memorable victory over Liverpool a 4-0 crushing and a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. They did lose 1-0 against Atletico Madrid though and in their final game drew 1-1 with La Liga side Rayo Vallecano.
Brighton finished in 9th place last season and that is a terrific campaign for the club who usually are looking over their shoulders trying to survive, the club will want some progress on that for this season. On the transfer front the club have bought Julio Enciso from Libertad for £9m as a forward. He has scored 18 goals in 55 games for the club, so this will be an interesting buy, a risk but interesting. Benicio Baker-Boaitey has come from Porto as a winger. The clubs major loss was Yves Bissouma who has been transferred to Tottenham.
Pre-season finished with a superb 5-1 win over Espanyol although a few days before that they lost ‘ an all Premier League game’ at home to Brentford with that encounter finishing 1-0.
Team News:
Manchester United: Anthony Martial is set to miss out with a hamstring problem. It is unclear if Cristiano Ronaldo will be selected to play as the forward seems to want to leave the club.
Brighton: There are no new injuries for the club heading into the new season.
Man Utd vs Brighton Head to Head:
The last time the teams played each other was in May and Brighton smashed Manchester United 4-0.
Last season this fixture finished 2-0 to Manchester United.
Brighton have never won at Old Trafford.
Man Utd vs Brighton Prediction:
The fans will be right behind Ten Hag in his 1st game and we expect United not only to win but to win well. There have been some joyous occasions at Old Trafford over the years despite the lack of trophies and winning mentality, think back to Ronaldo’s comeback game for the club, and this should be on that level. The players will want to express themselves and put in a good performance and we don’t see any response from Brighton. Not that Potter’s side are poor and they will create chances but this could be a game where they simply get overwhelmed.
Also of course Brighton have never won here and we don’t believe for a moment that the party will be spoiled by them, it would actually feel like a disaster if it were even at this early stage, so we are going for a United win and for us to see a few goals. United are a good price to win the game, odds on but perhaps one could have expected odds as low as 1.50 and they are higher than that, so that should be taken on.
Man Utd vs Brighton Betting Tips:
Manchester United to beat Brighton at 1.60
Over 2.5 goals at 1.80
Anytime goalscorer: Jadon Sancho at 4.00
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