What to expect from Man United and Liverpool matches…stats and predictions

Manchester United travels to St. James Park to play Newcastle United. Rafael Benitez’s team was promoted to the premier league after spending some time in the cold for a few years at the Championship. Jose Mourinho will be moving into this tie with confidence after comfortably beating another newly promoted side Huddersfield 2-0 at Old Trafford in the past fixture.

Benitez on the other side was rescued by Mohammed Diame’s goal which earned them a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace away.

The Red Devils have 56 points and are trailing the run-away league leaders Manchester City by 16 points. The Magpies are on the other side languishing at position 17, with 25 points as they stare at the possibility of dropping into the relegation zone.

Manchester United have not lost away to Newcastle for 6 years now. But in as much as they are the leading favourites for the game, jinx are broken. Rafael Benitez being at the helm of the management may spin things to their favour. Such can happen especially given the rivalry between the Spaniard and the Portuguese. This can be traced from the time that Mourinho coached Chelsea and Benitez coached Liverpool.

While Manchester United have only dropped points once (against Tottenham Hostpurs) in the past 5 matches, Newcastle are winless in their past 5 fixtures.

With the signature of Alexis Sanchez, the presence of Romelu Lukaku who is efficient against small teams and availability of Jesse Lingard; it can be easier to say that this match is Mourinho’s to lose.

Bets: Manchester United have only failed to score once in their past 7 matches when they lost 2-0 to Tottenham. Red Devils can possibly score two goals in today’s fixture given that they average 2 goals in a match. The same happens with the Magpies who have scored in 6 of their last 7 matches. They only failed to find the back of the net against Chelsea in the FA Cup loss. Manchester United have the upper hand to win this game but both teams are likely to score.

Southampton vs Liverpool

Liverpool also travels to St. Mary’s to take on Southampton. These are two teams with some level of relationship especially based on the fact that the Reds buy most of players from Southampton. Jurgen Klopp is missing certain players for this clash but after having staged impressive performances especially against big teams, he may not be worried after all. Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez and Adam Lallana are out of this clash.

The two teams have met 9 times since Jurgen Klopp took over the coaching role at the Merseyside club. Off all those occasions, Klopp has only dug a win twice.

Out of the 9 meetings, both teams scored in only three matches. In the other six, the losing team failed to score but the number of goals were lower.

The Saints have scored in all their past 5 matches with one of those goals coming in 1-1 draw against Tottenham at home.

Liverpool have also scored in 4 of their past fixtures. They only failed to hit the back of the net in a match against Swansea.

Bets: Liverpool have an upper hand in winning this match. Given their latest scoring record where they average 2 goals a match, they are the favouries. Southampton on the other have scored in each of their past 5 fixtures and are likely to hit the back of the net against their transfer clients. Both teams have high possibility of scoring.