Newcastle Utd vs Manchester Utd: Premier League Preview

Manchester United travel to Newcastle to face the Magpies on Saturday afternoon.

In their last match at Old Trafford this season, United fell to a 1-0 defeat, which made it two in a row at the Theatre of Dreams with United also losing to Everton three days previous. At that time Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini and Chris Smalling were all out injured and Robin van Persie played the full 90 minutes despite being injured himself, subsequently being sidelined until well into the New Year. It was a period where United’s supporters needed to be patient, but it was a big scalp for Newcastle United, who had not won at Old Trafford since 1972.

Newcastle United are not in a great position at this stage in the season. Injuries are thick and fast in Pardew’s squad, which means he could easily be on the receiving end of defeat himself. United have their own injury crisis, but have enough players to make a difference, even though there is not much to play for in the league this season, apart from a UEFA Europa League place, which is something the supporters are divided on.

United played Bayern Munich at Old Trafford this week in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final play off, with many expecting the current European champions to give a footballing lesson to David Moyes’ underachieving side, but it was United that scored first, and they should have been 1-0 within minutes of the match kicking off. Bayern did score the away goal they came to Manchester for, but Javi Martínez was booked and Bastian Schweinsteiger was sent off, meaning both miss the second leg, which could cause a problem for the Germans.

United will be wanting to keep spirits high. A victory away to Newcastle United means that they will travel to Germany knowing that they will have put the defeats to Liverpool and Manchester City behind them. Many United supporters would like to see players like Wayne Rooney and Shinji Kagawa rested for the Newcastle trip, but both will not want to sit out of a match, so they should play.

David Moyes will be without Robin van Persie, but could also see players like Ryan Giggs, Alexander Büttner, Rafael da Silva, Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans miss this fixture, but with the managers press conference not taking place until later this afternoon, there is a chance that some of these players will travel to Newcastle. Alan Pardew has an injury dilemma with Tim Krul, Moussa Sissoko, Loïc Rémy, Ryan Taylor, Gabriel Obertan, Mathieu Debuchy and Sammy Ameobi all currently on the sidelines.

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