Sheff Utd vs Man Utd preview: Can Ole beat strong hosts to get 3rd straight win?

Sheffield United’s latest chance to prove their Premier League worth comes against 13-time competition winners Manchester United on Sunday.

The Red Devils are not the power they used to be but are still the biggest name in the English top-flight.

Man United showed signs of improvement before the international break but have sorely lacked consistency under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. As Arsenal found out just a month ago, a trip to Bramall Lane is anything but a walk in the park.

Team News

Diogo Dalot, Nemanja Matic, Luke Shaw and Axel Tuanzebe have all returned to training but are unlikely to feature here, although Ashley Young will return after serving a one-match suspension.

Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah all remain sidelined, while Solskjaer has confirmed he will be without Scott McTominay and Marcos Rojo.

After beating Manchester United 2-1 on the first ever day in Premier League history in August 1992, Sheffield United have lost each of their last five against the Red Devils in the top flight.

In all competitions, Manchester United have won their last seven meetings with Sheffield United, by an aggregate score of 14-1.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, Manchester United have lost six of their 19 away Premier League games against promoted sides (W11 D2 L6) - just one fewer than they did in 62 such games with the Scotsman in charge (W36 D19 L7).

Manchester United have won just one of their last 10 Premier League away games (D3 L6), and have conceded at least once in each of their last 11 on the road. The Red Devils haven't failed to keep a clean sheet in 12 consecutive top-flight away games since a run of 15 in the 1985-86 campaign.

Against Brighton last time out, Manchester United fielded the youngest starting XI in the Premier League so far this season (average age of 23y 350d). Indeed, only Bournemouth (25y 88d) have a younger average starting XI across the Premier League this season (25y 103d).

All of Manchester United's Premier League goalscorers this season have been aged 23 and under, with Anthony Martial their oldest scorer so far (23y 326d vs Norwich). He's the youngest oldest-goalscorer for a club in the competition this season.

Marcus Rashford has scored five goals in his last five games in all competitions for Manchester United, and is looking to score in three consecutive games for the Red Devils for the first time since September 2017.

Predicted XI

Sheff Utd: Moore; Basham, Jagielka, O’Connell; Baldock, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens; Mousset, McGoldrick.

Man Utd: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Young; Matic, Fred, Pereira; James, Martial, Rashford.

Prediction 

Sheffield United 1-1 Manchester United