Manchester United return to action this evening as they travel to face Newcastle United at St James’ Park in the Premier League. It will be 16 days since their last match, a 1-0 victory over Norwich City following the postponements of the matches against Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion. United have a good chance to break into the top four with these matches in hand, as long as they are played at a time where United will have the time to play matches, not at a time where they could be in Emirates FA Cup or even UEFA Champions League action, which will more than likely be the case.
United, at the time of writing, sit in sixth place in the Premier League, five points adrift of fourth-placed Arsenal, 11 behind third-placed Chelsea, 14 behind second-placed Liverpool and 17 behind top of the league Manchester City. United will have a long and tough task of righting the wrongs that came at the end of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s time at the club. Newcastle sit 19th in the league and likely to find relegation to the Championship at the end of the season if this form continues. They have a -23 goal difference, three shy of Norwich’s goal difference, who are bottom of the league. Dire times for that wee club in the North East.
Manchester United:
De Gea;
Dalot, Varane, Maguire, Telles;
Fred, McTominay;
Greenwood, Fernandes;
Rashford, Ronaldo
Substitutes:
Henderson; Jones, Shaw, Wan-Bissaka; Matic, Van de Beek; Cavani, Sancho, Elanga
Newcastle United:
Dubravka;
Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Krafth;
Fraser, Shelvey, Longstaff, Saint-Maximin;
Wilson, Joelinton
Substitutes:
Woodman, Gillespie; Hendrick, Murphy, Almiron, Anderson, White; Gayle
United and Newcastle have played a total of 53 matches in the history of the Premier League. United have won 32 matches, drawing 14 with Newcastle winning the remaining seven matches. United have scored a total of 112 goals, winning three penalties and scoring two of them. Newcastle have scored 54 goals, winning tree penalties and scoring all of them. United have kept a total of 19 clean sheets with Newcastle keeping a total of 11 in these matches. United players have been shown a total of 87 yellow cards and three red cards with Newcastle players shown a total of 85 yellow cards and three red cards.
In recent history, there have been 11 players to play for both United and Newcastle – Peter Beardsley, Keith Gillespie, Andy Cole, Ronny Johnsen, Nicky Butt, Guiseppe Rossi, Danny Simpson, Alan Smith, Louis Saha, Gabriel Obertan and Michael Owen. Of these players, Andy Cole is perhaps the best performing player and most effective signing – the only one coming from Newcastle for a fee (£6 million and Gillespie back in 1995. Michael Owen, who has since turned him back on United, despite winning his only ever Premier League title at the club, seeking to get Liverpool fans to love him again, was another.
Written by John Walker
