Manchester United travel to the Liberty Stadium as they take on Swansea City in the second match week of the 2017-18 Premier League season.
Manchester United come into the match on the back of a 4-0 thrashing of West Ham in the opening weekend, while Swansea began their league campaign with an away stalemate against Southampton.
For the second game in a row, Manchester United will have the entire squad available for selection, obviously with the exclusion of the long-term injured trio of Young, Rojo and Shaw. Lindelof is expected to again be excluded from the squad as Mourinho confirmed last week that he needs time to adapt to the Premier League, which was followed by reports claiming that the Swedish international looks unconvincing even in training. While Mourinho is expected to start most of the players which played against West Ham, supporters and pundits are desperate for him to field Martial instead of Rashford at Left Wing. The Frenchman looks rejuvenated, and United could risk upsetting him if Mourinho ignores his good performances and does not reward him with a start. It will be interesting to see if Mourinho extends Mata’s stay in the starting line-up or if he chooses to bring back Herrera who was dropped to the bench last weekend.
Swansea City, on the other hand, have confirmed that Fernando Llorente is still injured after missing the entirety of the pre-season with a broken arm, while midfielders Nathan Dyer and Ki-Sung Yeung are also sidelined. Paul Clement’s side, however, will be devoid of their star man, as Gylfi Sigurdsson’s £45m move to Everton has now been confirmed. It’ll be interesting to see how the Welsh club lines up in attack, and it is fairly obvious that they’ll be fielding a defensive formation so as to repeat experiencing a thrashing similar to the one West Ham received last week.
Last season, United defeated Swansea 3-1 away in November, but were frustrated in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in April. However, United boast an impeccable record against the Swans, who’ve never been able to keep a clean sheet against the Red Devils in 12 previous attempts.
Manchester United will no doubt be wanting to win in style and get an early boost in this season’s title race, and Mourinho would want to take advantage of Tottenham’s clash with Chelsea where at least one team is expected to drop points and these points could make the difference at the end of the season. The home side, on the other hand, would want to cause an upset and get their league campaign underway, and after losing their star man and having not signed any ready made replacement as of yet, it’ll be a big achievement if they manage to avoid relegation. Tammy Abraham, Leroy Fer and Andre Ayew will be leading the Swans attack, but I reckon that United’s firepower will be too much for them to handle. Expect another one-sided game for United, and I’ll put my money on a 3-0 win for the visiting side.