Fulham v Manchester United: Premier League tips and betting preview

Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event, 12.30pm Saturday

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can ease into a critical period which could decide his future by picking up three precious Premier League points at Fulham.

Manchester United head for London looking for a sixth straight away win under Solskjaer, who has yet to taste defeat in his ten matches in temporary charge of the club.

Fulham probably won’t be good enough to thwart the Norwegian – even Jose Mourinho’s abject rabble managed to thrash the Cottagers 4-1 at Old Trafford in December, which shows how brittle Fulham are.

And easing into the Premier League’s top four, for 24 hours at least, would represent a huge confidence boost as United brace themselves for crunch showdowns with Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Liverpool in three different competitions over the next fortnight.

There doesn’t appear to be any reason to doubt the Red Devils.

Punters will see them as good things at 8-13 but it may pay to take a slight risk to squeeze more out of the price and take the 17-20 about United winning in a match featuring more than 1.5 goals.

Two of United’s last three away wins have been by 1-0 scorelines, but they were at Tottenham and Leicester, two sides who are decent defensively. Fulham are nothing of the kind.

Claudio Ranieri’s appointment at Fulham has done nothing to improve them at the back.

Since a 1-0 win over Huddersfield in December, Ranieri’s men have played six times and conceded at least two goals in each game. One of those matches was at home to Sky Bet League Two side Oldham.

They boast the worst defensive stats in the top flight with 55 goals shipped – that’s nine more than anyone else. They have just two clean sheets to their name.

They have won four times this season but all of those were against teams in the current bottom eight and they look like an accident waiting to happen.

Ranieri is in a difficult position knowing Fulham cannot continue to slide because a seven-point gap has opened up between them and safety, but he can’t afford to take risks against a team as electric in attack as United.

Fulham have creativity in their side. Ryan Babel looks a decent addition, Tom Cairney appears to be back in favour and Aleksandar Mitrovic is a threat to any centre-back despite giving away too many fouls.

But Calum Chambers and Jean Michael Seri are no match for the United midfield and Marcus Rashford and pals will terrify Fulham’s defence. Rashford, who has found the net in six of Solskjaer’s ten matches in charge, looks a sound bet at 5-1 to be the first scorer.

Premier League standings

Recommendation
Man Utd & over 1.5 goals
1pt 17-20 Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes

Bet on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news

Fulham
Loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah can’t play against his parent club. Andre Schurrle and Cyrus Christie have recovered from knocks. New signing Lazar Markovic should make the bench. Alfie Mawson is out.

Manchester United
Antonio Valencia and Matteo Darmian have been ruled out. Marcos Rojo has returned to training.

Key stat
United have won nine and drawn the other two of their last 11 games against Fulham.

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