MANCHESTER UNITED are looking to get back to winning ways in the Premier League when they travel to Fulham TODAY.
The Red Devils fell short against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side before beating them in the Carabao Cup on Thursday.
But now they come up against a determined Fulham side who are eager to the put the narrow Manchester City defeat behind them.
- Kick-off time: 4:30pm GMT
- Live stream: NOW TV
- TV channel: Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League
- Fulham XI: Leno, De Cordova-Reid, Diop, Ream, Robinson, Palhinha, Cairney, Andreas, Wilson, Vinicius, Willian
- Man Utd XI: De Gea, Malacia, Lindelof, Martinez, Shaw, Casemiro, Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, Martial, Rashford, Elanga
JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET A FREE £10 BONUS WITH 100s OF GAMES TO PLAY AND NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED (Ts&Cs apply)
Follow ALL the action with our live blog below…
Marcus Rashford
The Manchester United forward has returned to form this season after suffering a difficult 2021/22 campaign.
Rashford’s uptick in form has come at just the right time for him to be named in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man England squad for the World Cup.
Rashford was fantastic in his team’s victory over West Ham two weeks ago when he scored an Alan Shearer-esque header to earn Manchester United all three points.
He’ll be hoping for more of the same today.
Familiar faces
There’s a couple of names on the Fulham team sheet that’ll look familiar to Manchester United fans.
Andreas Pereira and Dan James made 95 appearances for the Red Devils between them.
The narrative writes itself this afternoon…
Craven Cottage
In an era where the majority of Premier League grounds have modern, shiny bowls for stadiums, Fulham’s Craven Cottage is reassuringly old-school.
But that newly-built Riverside stand is doing its best to bring the stadium into the 21st century.
Ronaldo’s absence
Have we already seen Cristiano Ronaldo’s final appearance for Manchester United?
Speculation linking him with a move away from Old Trafford in January has been circling around for a long time now.
The Portuguese is missing today’s game through illness.
Erik Ten Hag could have done with him today as he’s been forced to name only eight substitutes – and two of those are goalkeepers.
Roy Hodgson
Look who it is!
The former Fulham and England boss will be in attendance for this afternoon’s game.
Carlos Vinicius
The Brazilian has big shoes to fill at Craven Cottage this afternoon.
Vinicius is still searching for his first Fulham goal after joining the club in the summer.
Vinicius was on loan at Spurs two seasons ago and scored one league goal in nine appearances.
Marco Silva will need him to contribute more than that this season.
World Cup influence
It may be cynical of me but it’s hard to not feel as though the imminent start of the Wold Cup has affected Erik Ten Hag’s team this afternoon.
That being said, the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Antony does give players such as Elanga and Martial a chance to prove their worth to the United boss.
Fulham substitutes
Could we see Dan James come off the bench to haunt his former team later on?
Fulham subs: Rodak, Adarabioyo, Duffy, Chalobah, James, Onomah, Mbabu, Harris, Sekularac.
Man Utd susbtitutes
Erik Ten Hag doesn’t seem to have a lot of attacking options on the bench if his team needs a late goal today.
Man Utd subs: Bishop, Dubravka, Maguire, Fred, Van de Beek, McTominay, Garnacho, Izbal.
Fulham starting XI
Vinicius leads the line for the Cottagers in Mitrovic’s absence.
Fulham XI: Leno, De Cordova-Reid, Diop, Ream, Robinson, Palhinha, Cairney, Pereira, Wilson, Willian, Vinicius.
Man United starting XI
Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo both miss today’s game with illness and Antony hasn’t recovered from his injury in time.
Man Utd XI: De Gea, Shaw, Lindelof, Martinez, Malacia, Eriksen, Casemiro, Fernandes, Elanga, Rashford, Martial.
World Cup
We’ll find out whether the upcoming World Cup in Qatar has an effect on proceedings this afternoon as players, somewhat understandably, try to avoid injury before joining up with their respective international squads.
Fulham have six players heading out to Qatar in the days following this match, while Manchester United have 15, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez.
Manchester United injury news
Cristiano Ronaldo has been suffering from illness in the week so is a doubt for this one.
Raphael Varane, Brandon Williams and Axel Tuanzebe are all ruled out for Erik Ten Hag’s side, but Antony could be in line to return after recovering from a hip injury.
We’ll have the official teams news in around 15 minutes’ time.
Fulham injury news
The big news for Fulham is that Aleksandar Mitrovic has been ruled out of today’s match after picking up a foot injury.
Marco Silva is also unable to call upon Neeskens Kebano and Manor Solomon due to injury.
Kenny Tate and Harrison Reed both miss out through suspension.
Hello from Craven Cottage
Good afternoon and welcome to our coverage of the Premier League fixture between Fulham and Manchester United.
Today’s game is the final Premier League fixture before the domestic season takes a break for the World Cup in Qatar.
Fulham have surprised many onlookers with their performances in this campaign and could leapfrog Chelsea and possibly even Brighton (depending on the result of their game against Aston Villa) with a win today.
The Red Devils are currently fifth in the Premier League table, six points behind Tottenham and the pressure is on Erik Ten Hag’s team to close that gap to the top four.
Fulham were unfortunate to lose away at the Etihad last weekend when Erling Haaland’s 95th minute penalty decided the game in Manchester City’s favour.
Manchester United, meanwhile, were comprehensively beaten at Villa Park in a match that was reminiscent of the Red Devils’ early season form.
The result was certainly a surprising one, especially considering that Erik Ten Hag’s team were on a nine-match unbeaten run heading into the game.
Fulham have to look back to December 2009 for the last time they beat Manchester United in the league, so a win for the home team here would certainly be a turn up for the books.
Who are you backing for this one?
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
