MATCH PREVIEW: Manchester United vs Newcastle United

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Manchester United vs Newcastle United

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Barclays Premier League

Saturday 7^th December, 2013

12:45 KO (BST)

Old Trafford, Manchester

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United (9th)

“We’ve got a long way to go, we’ll need to play some great football and win a lot of games in the run in if we’re going to be in there around it come the end of the season.” – David Moyes.

“We know we’re going to go on a run. We can go 20 games unbeaten at any time and the rest of the league knows we can do that. That’s a powerful position to be in.” – Phil Neville.

Starting XI from: David de Gea, Anders Lindegaard; Rafael da Silva, Fabio da Silva, Chris Smalling, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans, Phil Jones, Patrice Evra, Alex Buttner; Antonio Valencia, Nani, Ashley Young, Adnan Januzaj, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Tom Cleverley; Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez

Doubt: Robin van Persie (groin), Shinji Kagawa (illness)

Unavailable: Wayne Rooney (suspension), Michael Carrick (Achilles), Darren Fletcher (bowel)

Top Scorer: Wayne Rooney (8)

Home record: P7 W3 D2 L2 F8 A6 Pts11

Home form: W L D W W L

Home record vs Newcastle: P77 W48 D20 L9 F180 A85

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Newcastle (7th)

“Their reaction is going to be a little bit larger than ours, so there’s going to be a little bit of pressure on them and we have got to try to capitalise on that and make it difficult for them. If we can do that and get into the last period of the game, we could try to reverse a statistic that isn’t very good of Newcastle winning at Manchester United.” – Alan Pardew

Starting XI from: Tim Krul, Rob Elliot; Davide Santon, Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Paul Dummett, Massadio Haidara, Steven Taylor; Gael Bigirimana, Vernon Anita, Cheick Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Moussa Sissoko, Jonas Gutierrez, Sylvain Marveaux, Gabriel Obertan; Yoan Gouffran, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi, Loic Remy

Doubt: Hatem Ben Arfa (illness), Papiss Cisse (foot)

Unavailable: Ryan Taylor (knee)

Top Scorer: Loic Remy (8)

Away record: P7 W3 D0 L4 F8 A14 Pts9

Away form: W L W L W L

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Last five meetings at Old Trafford

United 4-3 Newcastle (26-12-12) PL

United 2-1 Newcastle (26-09-12) LC

United 1-1 Newcastle (26-11-11) PL

United 3-0 Newcastle (16-08-10) PL

United 1-1 Newcastle (17-08-08) PL

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Officials

Referee: Andre Marriner.

The 42-year-old official has taken charge of eleven Premier League matches this season, brandishing forty-one yellow cards and four red cards. He has awarded two penalties. Was last seen by United fans at Anfield during September’s 1-0 defeat. Hasn’t overseen a league game at Old Trafford since sending off Jonny Evans during United’s 1-0 win over Bolton in March 2011.

Assistants: P Kirkup, S Massey.

Fourth Official: Neil Swarbrick.

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Notes

United have won just 5 of the last 11 league matches at Old Trafford.

If Robin van Persie does not feature this will be the first time United have played a league game without either him or Wayne Rooney in their side since the Dutchman arrived.

Newcastle have alternated between wins and defeats in their last 8 away games in the league. They’re due a win.

Jonny Evans and Patrice Evra have both scored 2 goals in the last 2 games vs Newcastle.

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Of the Premier League top half teams, only Newcastle (21) have conceded more goals than United (18).

Papiss Cisse has scored 2 goals in 3 games against United.

United have scored only eight goals in seven Premier League home games this season.

Tim Krul and Moussa Sissoko have started all 14 league games for Newcastle this season.

United are undefeated in 22 of the last 23 matches against Newcastle in all competitions.

United have not lost successive Premier League home games since May 2002.

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Score prediction: United 3-2 Newcastle

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