England Premier League
Monday 14th August 2023
Kick off at 8pm BST
Venue: Old Trafford
Match Preview:
To round off the first weekend of Premier League matches Manchester United will take on Wolves at home and they will be the favourites to kick start their campaign in a positive fashion. Manager Erik ten Hag was criticised at times in his debut season for the club but they went on to win the Carabao Cup and qualify for the Champions League. It is fair to say at this stage Ten Hag is looking like being the correct appointment, he has steadied the ship but club owners and fans will now want the team to become genuine title challengers.
Pre-season witnessed high and lows for United including victories over Arsenal and Lyon but they also lost to Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, at the same time the importance of these games apart from fitness has to be questioned. In the transfer market Mason Mount has come in from Chelsea while they have also secured the highly rated goalkeeper Andre Onana from Inter Milan. Also from Serie A comes Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta. Phil Jones after many years of service has departed and because of Onana coming in that has spelled the end for David de Gea who was released. Alex Telles has gone to Saudi Arabia and Anthony Elanga has joined Nottingham Forest.
Wolves have been in the press lately as they parted company with last seasons manager Julen Lopetegui and in has come Gary O’Neil who many felt was harshly treated by Bournemouth, with the Cherries sacking him even though they avoided relegation with games to spare. Of course this means that all of the purchases so far and friendly games, tactics and setups were not conducted by O’Neil so it is hard to find any patterns as they head into the new campaign. The big news on the transfer front was the signing of Matheus Cunha for £44m from Atletico Madrid. Boubacar Traore has also come in for almost £10m from Metz. Some key players have been lost though and they include Ruben Neves who joined the Saudi League, Diego Costa has been released and Raul Jimenez has joined Premier League rivals Fulham. Financially Wolves have played the game very well but will some of their losses come and bite them back? Raul Jimenez at Fulham we are looking at you!
Pre-season was solid and the club remained unbeaten including a win over Porto and a 1-1 draw with Celtic and they also overcame Ligue 1 side Rennes winning that game 3-1.
Team News:
Manchester United: Anthony Martial is set to miss out due to a hamstring injury. New signing Rasmus Holjund has a back injury and misses out. Dean Henderson, Amad Diallo and Tom Heaton are all still missing from last season's respective injuries. Tyrell Malacia has a knock and is a doubt but will be assessed.
Wolves: Matheus Cunha has a knock and will be assessed. There are no other injuries to report ahead of the weekend.
Man Utd vs Wolves Head to Head:
Last season Manchester United won this fixture 2-0.
Manchester United have won 5 of the last six meetings.
The last four meetings have all been under 2.5 goals.
Man Utd vs Wolves Prediction:
We have experienced on many occasions in the last decade where Manchester United at home looked nailed on to win but they failed to do so. Ten Hag needs to make a statement that we are about to witness a different, winning version of United. We did see this at times last season but there were still some consistency issues, of course that can be forgiven in his debut season. But everyone will be demanding more in this one.
United are at best 1.30 to win this game and it does on paper seem like a straightforward win. O’Neil has underrated quality and he will have done his homework but the disadvantage of course is that he has only been able to spend four days with the players prior to this game. With it being away from home, first game of the season, an evening one too we only really see one winner here. The odds are not good so it might be worth trying to make them better for us with the ht/ft market.
Man Utd vs Wolves Betting Tips:
Half Time/Full Time: Manchester United/Manchester United at 1.91
Anytime goalscorer: Marcus Rashford at 1.91
Anytime goalscorer: Bruno Fernandes at 3.00
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