Manchester United v Liverpool Preview, 13th January 2013
Premiership leaders Manchester United renew rivalry with Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday in the lunchtime kick-off. The Red Devils begin the weekend with a comfortable seven-point advantage over champions City and have had much the better of recent clashes with their Merseyside rivals.
United have won the last three meetings between the teams at Old Trafford and an impressive seven of the last eight. Liverpool are currently in eighth place in the Premiership but trail United by a massive 21 points and that accurately reflects the gulf between the sides. Brendan Rodgers has always said that it will take time to turn Liverpool’s fortunes around and ruled out suggestions of a “quick fix”. They have managed to hold Chelsea, Everton and Swansea on their travels but they will need to raise their game if they are to get anything out of this fixture.
Liverpool do go into this game in good form having won their last three matches and could take some comfort from the fact that United have been conceding an unusually high amount of goals this season. In fact, United have conceded more goals than any side in the top half of the table. The bad news for Liverpool is of course that United have scored more times than anyone else, 54 goals from 21 matches. That statistic alone makes it difficult to see Liverpool coming away with much on Sunday. Time and again this season, United have looked in trouble but somehow managed to sneak a result in the closing minutes.
Manchester United have confirmed that Wayne Rooney will miss the game but Nani and Anderson are both available for selection. Nani has missed 14 games whilst Anderson has missed 8 so it is a timely boost for Ferguson to have them restored to his squad.Summer signing Robin van Persie is enjoying a rich vein of form and has been the scourge of Liverpool in recent fixtures, scoring the winner on his last two appearances against them, including a late penalty at Anfield in September.
United are keeping quiet on recent speculation linking them with the signing of Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha during the transfer window. However, they have dismissed talk of a swoop for out-of-favour Chelsea stars Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard.Liverpool may start £12 million striker Daniel Sturridge on Sunday, already a scorer for the Reds on his debut in the FA Cup last weekend. The former Chelsea man is eager to establish himself at centre-forward having played much of his career at Stamford Bridge out wide.
On a level playing field, it is difficult to see any other result than a home win. This is always a fiercely contested fixture and only the Merseyside derby has seen more red cards than this particular clash. If United can keep their cool, they surely have enough fire power to maintain a clear lead at the top of the table. With Van Persie having scored eight goals in his last eight Premier League games, he is clearly the player to watch on Sunday. Manchester United are 10-11 favourites to win the match with most online gaming firms. The draw is priced at 11-4 and Liverpool are 7-2 to shock the league leaders.
