Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
A full programme of Premier League action returns this weekend and we kick start proceedings at Old Trafford as EFL Cup winners Manchester United play host to a Bournemouth side who are slipping further down the table as the weeks progress.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was undoubtedly the hero last weekend as he broke Southampton hearts with a late header to secure a second successful day out at Wembley this season. Today he’ll be looking to put another South Coast club to the sword with the knowledge that a win would put United 4th in the table for a few hours at least.
And should results go their way later this Evening – that being Liverpool and Arsenal sharing the points at Anfield then Jose Mourinho’s side will finish the weekend back among the Champions League places and should they get back among the top 4 you would think they would end up staying their come the end of the season.
In the teams above them in the race for the three remaining Champions League places, only Tottenham and Liverpool were in action last weekend and with Liverpool losing to Leicester on Monday it has blown the race for 4th wide open.
Success for United will undoubtedly be picking up as many cup trophies as possible with a potential quadruple still very much a prospect. Just how much of those trophies would Jose Mourinho swap for a top four finish, that said there is no reason why they cannot go to win the F.A. Cup, Europa League and still finish 4th.
Fixture congestion may well be their undoing but if anyone has the squad to compete on so many fronts it will be United. Jose Mourinho will now have to rotate where necessary and yesterday he was quoted as saying that the almost forgotten man at the club Luke Shaw will feature at some point Today.
What Bournemouth would give to have someone like Luke Shaw in their ranks, their defensive plight has been one for concern over the past two months. No win in seven Premier League matches with four successive defeats sees Bournemouth being dragged fully into a relegation battle.
They may be 4 points clear of the drop zone but the momentum that Eddie Howe’s side may have established in the first half of the campaign has now been eroded with the club now very much in a downward trajectory, clubs below them especially in the bottom three are playing to get out the table while Bournemouth need to play to stop the rot.
And this Lunchtime brings arguably the hardest place to go to right now as this United side is really hitting their stride. Too many draws will be their undoing in regards to capturing Premier League success but right now they are brushing past all that is put before them.
Bournemouth have conceded 20 goals in the last 7 matches, which means they now have the second worst defensive record in the league after shipping 51 at this two thirds stage of the campaign. The kind of stats that Ibrahimovic and company will be licking their lips at and you can only see that goals against count being higher come 2:30pm.
The Cherries form is non existent while The Red Devils’ is red hot. For me that can only point to one outcome, it may be a lunchtime kickoff and they do have a habit of upsetting the apple cart but this one will go with form and it will be a home win and 4th place for United, for a few hours at least.
