An early kickoff this Saturday sees the recently crowned League Cup winners go up against Bournemouth at Old Trafford in the Premier League. Despite United\u2019s heavy schedule of games recently, It\u2019s hard to make a case for the Cherries in this one as four straight defeats has seen them drop in a relegation battle while the Reds are on a high and bang in form.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth couldn\u2019t take advantage of an early Josh King penalty against West Brom and ended up losing 2-1 to the Baggies. A worrying 23 goals conceded in eight games will have United\u2019s front four foaming at the mouth. However, as is true to form, I can predict Artur Boruc to have his best game of his life by making countless saves to earn a point. It would be the third or fourth time that has happened to United this season. The Cherries will look to exploit their pace up front and that may the only way they trouble United\u2019s back four, by completely missing out the midfield and going long in behind the defence.<\/p>\n
As a fan attending the game, I certainly hope it will be more straight forward than last time. A sunny day in Manchester, which is rare enough as it is, was darkened by the unfortunate bomb scare resulting in an evacuation and meaning the game had to be rescheduled. A fake bomb was found in one of the toilets prior to kick off from a sniffer dog training exercise a couple of nights before. I felt particular sorry for the Bournemouth fans who had travelled seven hours to take their seats and then be told to leave again only to have to then make the whole journey again two nights later. While I agree it was the absolute correct decision, I sincerely hope the game will be played first time this time, and it finishes 11-0 to United.<\/p>\n
Rooney and Carrick are both fit and could feature on Saturday. I also wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Ashley Young returns at right back as he has done superbly when brought into the team to give Valencia a rest. It\u2019s still unsure whether Mkhitaryan is fit, however I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll know when Mourinho has his press conference. The tireless Zlatan will look to extend his goal tally of 26 as he eyes up the opportunity of joining the elite few United strikers to reach 30 goals in a single season.<\/p>\n
I predict a 3-0 win for United and with Liverpool playing Arsenal in the evening kick off, this weekend is a golden opportunity to overtake them and potentially also break into the top four.<\/p>\n