Tottenham Hotspur will host Manchester United at the North London Stadium today. Kick-off is at 5.30 pm.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer goes into this match under huge pressure after last week’s battering at home by bitter rivals Liverpool. While the scoreline was bad enough, the manner of the defeat was even worse, and raised serious questions about how far the club have progressed under the Norwegian.
Most are writing off any talk of a title challenge this season, with United seemingly far behind Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester City.
And, with the away leg of their Champions League tie against Atalanta, and the Manchester derby set for next weekend, Solskjaer could be on borrowed time.
At the very least, he cannot afford to lose this match, so he will need to be defensively solid. Although, with Raphael Varane still missing with injury, he does not have many options in changing the back four.
And with Paul Pogba serving suspension he picked up for his red card last Sunday, United may have to once again rely on the pairing of Fred and Scott McTominay that was given the run around by Liverpool last week.
However, further forward there needs to be changes. If Ronaldo is apparently undroppable, space may still need to be found in the team for players like Jesse Lingard that are at least prepared to work.
Spurs are not in a particularly good place themselves, although they made it past Burnley mid-week to reach the quarter-finals of the League Cup.
They lost to West Ham last week, making it all four London derbies so far this season. And Harry Kane still is struggling for goals.
However, some of their best performances this season have come against the so-called bigger teams – the opening weekend defeat of Manchester City and the first half display against Chelsea.
Prediction
Just a few weeks ago, United had been setting a new Premier League record for unbeaten matches away from home, so they have not become a bad side overnight.
Nevertheless, regular watchers of the team had warned that a result like last weekend was in the post. Now it is a question of how they respond.
If they play with the same lack of spirit and organisation as last week, then Spurs will beat them. If, however, they have corrected some of the flaws on the training ground, then they should get a draw at least.