Welcome to yet another match preview of Manchester United. It had been a hard year for all United fans but the best part is the year is ending with some positive news and a good performance by the team after Mourinho lost his job. Caretaker Solskjaer had provided the best start for the happy ending of the year.
It is going to be the second match for Solskjaer at Old Trafford and third overall and harder than the previous one as Bournemouth is way better than the previous two opponents. At Old Trafford on Boxing day, United won 3-1 against Huddersfield with another good performance. Paul Pogba who got the number 10 role in the absence of Martial was the hero of the match and stuck 2 vital goals to lead United to the victory. Matic also got a goal after a long restless and difficult season. The only bad to take from this match was that United missed the clean sheet at the end.
The whole team is in good momentum before going to Bournemouth and the confidence should be further with Sanchez, Martial and Lukaku being available. These 3 players would prowess United's attack. Martial missed the last match because of illness, Luaku had a personal problem and Sanchez is making a return after a long injury. All 3 players took part in training at Aon Training Complex last Thursday. Marcos Rojo, Scott McTominay and Chris Smalling are still in the sideline because of injury. With a number of matches in past weeks and coming weeks, we might see some rotations tomorrow.
United fans should still remember series of a comeback win in the month of November, and the one at the Vitality Stadium was one of the best. United went down early in the first half after the goal from Callum Wilson. Martial pulled the equalizer but waited for the winner from Marcus Rashford till the 90+2 minutes to secure all 3 points. Bournemouth hadn't been the same team after this loss. Bournemouth was at the top half but lost 7 matches of 9 played after losing to United. This poor run of form now keeps them to the 12th in the table. The series of loss includes 5-0 loss against Tottenham Hotspurs in the last game week. Bournemouth only won against Brighton and Huddersfield during this period.
It is going to be a test for Solskjaer and the team when the Cherries travels to Old Trafford. With the busy schedule, United will have a slight advantage of squad rotation over Bournemouth who doesn't have depth in the squad as United has. Also, Bournemouth lost club captain Simon Francis of serious injury which has caused a big problem in the defense. A tough challenge but I go with United winning this one. A win here would be the perfect end of the year and United can reduce the point with the fifth-placed Arsenal to just 3 points and move closer to Champions League position.
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