Jose Mourinho and co. continue their strenuous April schedule as they welcome Swansea City to Old Trafford. With a draw in the derby on Thursday, United have renewed hopes of finishing in the top four as a win today put them in third place, ahead of Liverpool and neighbours Manchester City temporarily.
But it won’t be a walk in the park as Swansea won their last game against Stoke and are fighting for survival in the Premier League. The Swans are still in the relegation battle and are two points off the safety zone. This is United’s 57th game of the season as putting it into perspective, Chelsea have played 13 matches less than them currently. Adding salt to the wounds, United have eight players missing with injuries taking its toll on the Red Devils.
Team news
Manchester United have not few but a whole list of injuries for this game. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are the long term absentees along with Juan Mata. Paul Pogba will also miss tomorrow’s match against Swansea and so will be the duo of Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimović. Timothy Fosu-Mensah suffered a knock in the Manchester derby and will also miss the game. Marouane Fellaini’s red card against City means that he is suspended for the next three league games.
For the visitors, the trio of Jack Cork, Martin Olsson and Leroy Fer are expected to pass fitness tests and start tomorrow. Wayne Routledge, Nathan Dyer and Angel Rangel are still out with their long injury problems.
Form guide
This is the 12th meeting between the two teams with the Red Devils clearly holding the advantage over the Welsh side. United have won seven, lost three and drawn one against Swansea in the past. When the two teams met last time around, United won 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium with Zlatan Ibrahimović scoring a brace and Paul Pogba scoring the other goal.
Swansea’s last away win over Manchester United came in the 2014/15 season. Also, Gylfi Sigurdsson can enter the record books tomorrow if he scores as he will become just the fourth player in history to score goals in three consecutive away games at the Theatre of Dreams.
Manchester United: D-D-W-W-W-D
Swansea City: L-D-L-L-L-W
Predicted line-ups
Manchester United: De Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Blind, Shaw, Carrick, Herrera, Lingard, Mkhitaryan, Martial, Rashford
Swansea: Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson, Britton, Fer, Carroll, Ayew, Sigurdsson, Llorente
Predicted score
Manchester United 2-1 Swansea City
Odds
Manchester United win – 2/5
Swansea City win – 7/1
Draw – 18/5
