Guardian Angel To Save The Day At Turf Moor

Manchester United are aiming to put a disastrous start to the season behind them when they take on Burnley in Saturday’s early kick-off at Turf Moor.

Form
Burnley have had a tough start to life in the top flight, suffering defeats in both of their matches to date although they have shown enough in those games to give them plenty of reasons to think top flight survival is achievable. The Clarets were beaten by Chelsea in their opening game of the campaign despite taking an early lead through Scott Arfield, but three goals in 17 minutes from new buy Diego Costa, Andre Schurrle and Branislav Ivanovic put Jose Mourinho’s side in a commanding position they never looked likely to surrender.

A trip to Wales followed when they faced up to Swansea as Nathan Dyer scored the only goal of the game for the hosts while Burnley failed to take their chances in the second half despite being largely the better side. Sheffield Wednesday then knocked a much-changed side out of the Capital One Cup in midweek when Atdhe Nuhiu’s penalty 12 minutes from time settled the encounter.

A poor start to life as Manchester United boss got a whole lot worse for Louis van Gaal in midweek when his side were thrashed 4-0 in their Capital One clash against MK Dons with William Grigg and Benik Afobe both scoring twice. That harrowing defeat came after Van Gaal had picked up his first point in English football last weekend thanks to a draw at Sunderland, when Juan Mata’s goal was cancelled out by Jack Rodwell on the half hour – the former Everton’s midfielder’s first since joining the Black Cats.

United were beaten in their first game of the season too when Swansea were 2-1 winners at Old Trafford when goals from Ki Sung-Yong and Gylfi Sigurdsson either side of Wayne Rooney’s equaliser ruined Van Gaal’s introduction to English football.

Team News
Sam Vokes remains sidelined for Burnley with a cruciate knee ligament injury which will keep the striker out for the majority of the season. Dyche is expected to revert to the side which he put out against the Swans once again having rung the changes for their league cup outing.

Van Gaal is expected to instantly bring record signing Angel Di Maria into the side though where remains unclear as it could result in a change to the 3-4-1-2 formation the Dutchman has favoured since taking over.

Marcos Rojo should slot into the defence after he failed to gain clearance in time to make his debut against Sunderland last weekend.

United still have a litany of injury problems though with Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini, Luke Shaw and Jesse Lingard all sidelined with further doubts over Chris Smalling and Shinji Kagawa.

Head-to-Head
The Clarets claimed a famous 1-0 win the last times these teams met at Turf Moor when Robbie Blake struck the only goal of the game in August 2009. United gained revenge in the reverse fixture as Dimitar Berbatov, Rooney and current Stoke striker Mame Biram Diouf earned the hosts a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Recommended Bets
Odds-on prices of 4/7 on a United team in dire form are far to risky to hold any appeal but with so much attacking talent now in their ranks they will still offer a threat to any side boasting Robin van Persie, Rooney, Mata and Di Maria will score their fair share of goals.

Mata is again well-priced to score anytime at 6/4 but the 10/11 on Over 2.5 goals is the pick of the bets in this game with two defences on display which leave a lot to be desired.