Start of 19th league Title or Start of being piped to the title again

Manchester United’s quest for a 19^th title starts tonight when they take on newly promoted Newcastle United at Old Trafford tonight.

Form

United go into the game with a good pre-season on their back, with five wins out of a possible seven including a 3-1 battering of Chelsea in the FA Community Shield. Whereas, Newcastle have only won two games in all preseason against Carlisle United and Deportivo La Coruna (winning on penalties) and their most recent game was a defeat against Rangers.

Team News

United go into the game with no injuries picked up in preseason with Oberton likely to have recovered from his ankle injury picked up in the MLS All stars game earlier this month. The Reds also have two notable midfield injuries Anderson and Hargreaves. Sir Alex could also give home debuts to Chris Smalling and Javier Hernandez and even possibly the Portuguese striker ‘Bebe’ whose deal was completed earlier today. Newcastle’s new signings however are unlikely to feature as major signings: Sol Campbell and Dan Gosling are both unfit. In Addition to their signings being out, Best and Taylor look to be out with Smith being a doubt to return to his old club.

Star Man

Name: Andrew Thomas Carroll

Age: 21

Team: Newcastle FC

Number: 9

Transfer Fee: £ N/A

Position: Striker

Officials

Chris Foy is the man in the middle tonight. The Merseysider has been refereeing in the English top flight since 2000 and took charge of the Reds four times last term. Foy will be hoping only one da Silva twin features against Newcastle – in a case of mistaken identity, he booked the wrong one at Oakwell last term. It’s an easy mistake to make…

Likely United Team

Man Utd: Van Der Sar, Rafael, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov

Predictions

Scoreline: Man Utd 3-1 Newcastle

Odds: Man Utd 2/9 Draw 5/1 Newcastle 12/1

Man to watch: Javier Hernandez