Premier League Preview: Manchester United v Blackburn Rovers

Manchester United will go into the Premier League match against Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford knowing that a win will at least keep them top of the table.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side should be buzzing after a late win away in the Champions League against Rangers. Chelsea’s poor form at the top of the league has given United a chance to sneak in and possibly pull away from the pack over the next few weeks.

United will also be happy that Wayne Rooney scored the winner in the match against Rangers. Rooney took a lot of verbal abuse from the Ibrox crowd and his celebrations after scoring suggested he felt a huge release of pressure and frustration.

Blackburn will travel to Old Trafford full of confidence after a convincing 2-0 win at home against Aston Villa. Sam Allardyce always sets his teams up to be hard to beat and this side will be no different. Jason Roberts will be hoping to continue his good form at the head of the Blackburn attack.

On the injury front things are also looking better for the club. Rafael is still recovering from a dead leg injury he picked up against Manchester City. He joins Michael Owen, Owen Hargreaves and Antonio Valencia on the serious injury list.

The good news is that United welcomed back a whole host of players for the match against Rangers that should play some point in this game. Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are free of knocks and Anderson has just returned from an injury and looked lively up in Scotland.

Sir Alex Ferguson will most likely use a 4-4-2 system in this game with Rooney starting with Dimitar Berbatov in attack. The Scot has already said he sees this as the club’s best attacking partnership and it should give the pair an extra chance to gel and play off the confidence of each other.

Berbatov did not look at all happy to be taken off for Javier Hernandez against Rangers but he looked sharp all of the time he was on the pitch. Blackburn will find it difficult to defend against this pair because they constantly switch roles with each other, which is difficult to monitor.

United have the edge in the recent statistics between the two clubs having won ten of the last 20 games to Blackburn’s four, the other six ties being draws. A United 2-0 win at a best price of 11/2 looks a solid bet on the correct score.