Source: Fox Sports Asia

Next up for Manchester United is a home tie at Old Trafford against Brighton Hove and Albion on Sunday the 10th November. At the beginning of the season, you would have predicted that this would have been an easy victory for Manchester United, however due to the form this season the tie has completely changed, now this game has become a mid table clash between a 9th placed Brighton and a 10th placed Manchester United.

Manchester United looked to have turned a corner in recent weeks with them getting a draw against Liverpool, and following that with 3 wins in a row against Partisan, Norwich and Chelsea respectively. However, last weekends result against Bournemouth threw a spanner into the works as Manchester United slumped to a 1-0 defeat. The performance of Manchester United in that game was dreadful as they like any creativity or bite, so they will be hoping for better this time round. United once again come into a Premier League game on the back of a cup Victory in the week, so far we haven’t had the best form following games in Cup competitions so a change of form will be needed if United want to get anything out of the game.

Brighton are where you would have expected at the beginning of the season, in mid table. Their recent run of form is 3 wins in 5, which is solid form and you would have to say that they could pose a threat to United on Sunday. The man to watch out for Brighton this season has been Leandro Trossard, the Brighton number 11 has been used sparingly so far, with him only having 5 games to his name. But, in those 5 games he has managed 2 goals and 1 assist, making him a real danger man for The Seagulls.

If we look at the stats and history of this fixture, we can see that it is extremely favourable to Manchester United. United have never lost a home game against Brighton winning 9 and drawing 2 in the process. Additionally, Brighton up picked up just one point from an available 39 against the top six sides, only scoring 3 goals in the process. In terms of this season, the start suggest that Brighton do you have more of a chance than on the history of this fixture would have you believe. Since beating West Ham on April 13th Manchester United have won just 15 points in the Premier, the fourth fewest of the teams currently in the division. Furthermore, Manchester United have only scored 13 goals in their 11 games so far this season while Brighton has scored 14 in their 11 games (Opta Stats)

In terms of team news, it’s a similar story for Manchester United as they still have injury concerns throughout the squad. In terms of positives, Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay picked up knocks in the midweek Europa League game however they should both be able to fetch it in this game, additionally Victor Lindelof could make a comeback after recovering from his injury. The negatives are that there is still a long list of injuries which include Pogba, Matic, Dalot, Gomes, Fosu-Mensah, Shaw and Tuanzebe, while Ashley Young is also out due to suspension.

Predicted XI: De Gea, Wan Bissaka, Maguire, Rojo, Williams, Fred, McTominay, Pereira, James, Rashford, Martial

Predicted score: Manchester United 2-1 Brighton