Premier League Preview: Manchester United v Stoke City

Manchester United welcome Stoke City to Old Trafford looking to keep their unbeaten record for this season in one piece.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side will be buzzing after an action packed 2-1 win away to West Bromwich Albion. It doesn’t seem to matter who United play at the moment, they just keep the momentum going and maintain first place in the Premier League.

Dimitar Berbatov didn’t have the best of games against West Brom and was replaced by Javier Hernandez late on. However, there is very little reason for Ferguson to change his basic formation for the match against Stoke and a 4-4-2 seems the most likely option.

Berbatov and Wayne Rooney have been playing together regularly over the last few weeks since Rooney returned from injury. The pair have an understanding that seems to be developing with every game and Ferguson will want them to play together as much as possible.

Ryan Giggs missed the match against West Brom due to illness and the club may choose to leave him out again and keep him away from the rest of the side. Nani faces a late fitness test on a hip injury and Gabriel Obertan is looking good to start down the left for a second successive game.

Park Ji-Sung is on international duty with South Korea and will join Owen Hargreaves and Antonio Valencia in playing no part during this game. Michael Owen should start from the bench again but he is currently the fourth choice striker at the club following Hernandez’s goal at West Brom.

The main problem for United over recent weeks has been the width in the team. One of Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher or Darron Gibson will start down the right against Stoke meaning a central midfield player playing out of position. The effect of this can be muted by having an experienced and aggressive right full-back but Gary Neville will be hard pushed to play two matches on the bounce in such a short period of time.

Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic will continue their central defensive partnership and this is important as Stoke are a very physical team. Stoke have big strikers with the likes of Kenwyne Jones and Ricardo Fuller dominating many defensive back lines.

United are also going to have to bear in mind that every time they give away a throw in inside their own half, Rory Delap possesses the ability to throw it into the penalty area with a free kick or set piece type effect. Stoke will seek out one or two genuine chances that they will take if United are not on top of their game.

United are heavy favourites to win this match at a best price of 3/10. Stoke are the huge outsiders at 11/1 while the draw will tempt some at 5/1.