This weekend’s Premier League clash of the titans will be held at Old Trafford with the red arch rivals Manchester United and
Liverpool set to face each other on Sunday.
The gastronome encounter also presents a reunion of ten Hag and Slot for the second time in a managerial capacity after the Red Gods subiected the Dutch side to a 3-0 home defeat in the pre-season.
Having only joined the Red Devils eight days prior and coming through the ranks at Bayern Munich, the young striker was the hero during a highly unconvincing victory over Fulham only to become the villain the following week at the AMEX stadium last weekend as the Ten Hag miracles came tumbling down.
Cup nightmares of ex-Man United man
Danny Welbeck and Joao Pedro before
Amad Diallo shot a goal for AC Milan and an offside of a Zirkzee saw an Alejandro Garnacho goal disallowed Brighton & Hove
Albion ran out winners in the lunchtime
duel, 2-1.
After the second consecutive loss in the three competitive games in the current season; a rather embarrassing loss through penalty-shootout to Manchester City in the Community Shield match, Manchester United has not indicated any serious improvement since the managing director of the club spared Ten Hag the sack.
It has also not been a beautiful September for Man United either as they have lost in 13 of the 35 top-flight encounters since Sir Alex Ferguson moved out of the dugout; in fact, only in May (14) have they lost more top-flight clashes since the start of the 2013-14 season.
However, the Red Devils are just 90 minutes away from beating three consecutive Premier League games at home for the first time since August 2023 after defeating Newcastle in the final of the last season that has not distinguished Slot and Ten Hag in the Eredivisie.
Four goals have been scored and none conceded by the Reds in that time, as Sunday’s visitors followed up their 2-0 beating of Ipswich Town with an identical win over Brentford last weekend, as Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah devenomised the Bees’ sting.
As was the case at Portman Road, though, Liverpool’s first-half display at Anfield left something to be desired, but their expected goals tally of 5.3 is still the highest of all 20
Premier League sides so far this season; an unsightly statistic for a Man United side famed for conceding shot after shot.
The Red Devils made it through Jurgen
Klopp’s farewell season without suffering a single loss to his Liverpool side, though, with two Premier League draws coming either side of an absorbing 4-3 FA Cup victory, but Slot oversaw a 3-0 trouncing during both sides” United States pre-season tour.
Although the Red Devils were able to complete a deal for the former midfield player of Paris Saint-Germain, Manuel Ugarte will not be able to make his club debut on Sunday since he failed to register by 12 p.m. on deadline day.
Moving on to new recruits who might make their debuts this weekend, Liverpool may have struck the best deal of the summer when they paid under £10 million to acquire Federico Chiesa, an attacker who won the Euro 2024 championship with Juventus.
However, Slot has acknowledged that Chiesa is unlikely to make his Old Trafford debut unless any last-minute injuries force him to. This is due to his lack of playing time in recent weeks and his well-documented fitness issues.
As of this writing, however, the only player uncertain for the visitors-whose captain, Virgil van Dijk, will make his 200th Premier League appearance for the team- is Curtis Jones, who had a groin injury on Friday and did not practice.
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