Manchester United vs. Wolverhampton: Premier League Preview

This game should, on paper, be a gimme but for two things.

Firstly, we have lost at Molineux in recent memory.

Admittedly, that video does contain Quinton Fortune, not our greatest player of the last 10 years, but the team we took should still have been good enough to win.

Secondly, Wolves have done remarkably well against the big teams this season.

Something like 75 percent of their points this season have come against teams in the top half of the table, with big wins coming against Chelsea, Liverpool and Sunderland amongst others.

They gave us a huge, huge scare at Old Trafford earlier in the season too, with Park Ji-Sung’s injury time goal bailing us out, saving us from a damaging draw.

Had he not scored, we would have been four points behind Chelsea having played a game more. How important that goal seems now that the shoe is so completely on the other foot.

Given the above, I think we’ll take a full strength lineup to Wolves. Before Rooney’s goals against Villa, I was expecting us to go 4-5-1, but I think we will now play 4-4-2 to take advantage of his apparent return to form.

Only Antonio Valencia is officially injured, but I think we can safely include Owen Hargreaves in that number. Hargreaves last appearence was in the return fixture in November.

Park Ji-Sung could return to action on the left and given that Wolves most potent threat comes down the flanks, I expect both him and Rafael to feature to combat this.

It’s been a while since Paul Scholes started a game and, with City next weekend, I expect Scholes to play in order to regain some sharpness because he’s a certainty to start against City if fit. With Scholes and Park in the team, the more offensively-minded Darron Gibson has a chance to start against the club he played on loan for, although in reality Fletcher is the likely choice. Nani is an automatic pick.

Hopefully, Park and Rafael should stifle their wingers, and the quality elsewhere should do the rest. Berba is way too good for the likes of Berra and Rooney, hungry and with a point to prove, will probably get a couple.

Five Cantonas Prediction

With the away day monkey off our back after the Blackpool game, we’ll win this 3-0.

Rooney (2) and Nani will be celebrating the goals.