Matchday six offers an interesting Portuguese duel as José Mourinho’s Manchester United welcome Nuno Espírito Santo’s Wolverhampton to Old Trafford. The teams enter this game as table neighbours, with United in eighth and the visitors in ninth, and both hunting a third straight PL win.
All has not been well at United this season, who’ve already conceded eight goals – something they took 14 games to ‘achieve’ last season. Aiming high on their own turf, United have not registered a draw here since December 30, 2017 – 14 matches ago (W11, D3 – in all competitions).
Against Wolves, United are up against opponents they’ve beaten in eight of the last nine H2Hs, while even more promising for the hosts, is that United have lost just once in their last 49 home games against newly-promoted clubs (W42, D6, L1).
It took the visitors three matches to figure out the PL, and after two straight win-to-nils they have climbed into the top-half. Now Wolves are beginning to show signs of the same resilience that saw them lose just seven of 46 matches in the ultra-competitive Championship last season.
Although they have scored just five goals so far, Wolves are joint-fourth in the league for shots fired (78) and big chances created without scoring (11).
LIVE STREAMING MANCHESTER UNITED VS WOLVES 22.9.2018
Players to watch: Romelu Lukaku has seven goals in seven starts for club and country, including four in the PL. Raúl Jiménez, meanwhile, has cemented Wolves’ striker position for himself, and has two goals from five PL games.
Stat attack: United have scored six of their eight league goals in the first-half, while five of the eight they’ve conceded came in the second.
There’s been a total of 20 yellow (4.0 on average) and two reds shown in United’s five PL matches.
Four of Wolves’ five PL games have been draws at half-time. Three of those were goalless draws.
Will not play
Herrera A.
(Ankle Injury)
Cavaleiro I.
(Lower Back Injury)
Matic N.
(Red Card)
Rashford M.
(Red Card)
Rojo M.
(Knock)
Match Information
Referee: Friend K. (Eng)
Venue: Old Trafford (Manchester)