Manchester United vs Leicester City 11/08/18

11 August 2018

After a season where they have had to settle with the second place behind the city rivals Manchester City, Manchester United will enter the new season hoping to overthrow the Citizens, as they look to take on Leicester City at the Old Trafford in the first match of the 2018-2019 Premier League campaign. The Red Devils have gone through quite turbulent preparations, as they failed to shine in almost every game they have played. After two successive draws with Club America and San Jose Earthquakes, Jose Mourinho’s team managed to defeat AC Milan on penalties after which they suffered a miserable 4-1 loss to Liverpool and a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich, while their only victory this summer in the regular 90 minutes took place at the Hard Rock Stadium against Real Madrid, whom they have beat by two goals to one. On the other hand, the Foxes recorded two wins out of five friendly matches they have played, as they hammered Notts County by four goals to one, and they also defeated Lille, in the last summer friendly, by two goals to one. However, Claude Puel’s side played out two uninspiring draws, 0-0 with Akhisar and 1-1 with Valencia, while losing 2-1 to Udinese in the process, which suggests they have failed to keep continuity throughout the warm-up period, which might come costly during the season.

Sergio Romero, Diogo Dalot, Antonio Valencia, Marcos Rojo, and Nemanja Matic won’t be available to perform for Manchester United due to injuries, while Matthew James should skip the encounter for the visitors due to some physical problems. Moreover, the appearance of Jonny Evans, Harry Maguire, James Maddison, Demarai Gray, and Jamie Vardy still hangs in the balance, which causes a sizeable headache to Claude Puel.