United Firepower To Shine Through

After finally grabbing a first win last weekend as Manchester United boss, Louis van Gaal will be looking to quickly build some momentum…

…with another against Leicester on Sunday afternoon.

Form
Despite being handed a tough opening schedule on their return to the top flight, Leicester have given a very good account of themselves with only one defeat – to leaders Chelsea – and five points to show after four Premier League games.

Nigel Pearson’s men have also picked up home draws against Everton and Arsenal while earning their first win of the season last weekend in what had looked a tricky away fixture at Stoke City. New signing Leonardo Ulloa scored the only goal of the game against the Potters and the Argentine has now scored three times since arriving from Brighton, which represents 75% of their total.

A dominant performance that resulted in a 4-0 thumping of QPR last Sunday handed Manchester United a long overdue win for the first time this term. Van Gaal’s new look side were very impressive in the game, although it has to be remembered just how poor the R’s were at Old Trafford last weekend when they allowed the hosts ample time and space to pick off their opponents at will.

Angel di Maria was, however, excellent on his home debut with the opening goal and a showing that constantly brimmed with menace. Ander Herrera also got his first goal for the club in the thrashing while Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata both registered their second goals of the season.

Team News
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel is expected to take his spot between the posts again for the Foxes after recovering from a minor knee problem at the expense of the unfortunate Ben Hamer who was excellent when making his debut and keeping a clean sheet against Stoke. Veteran defender Matthew Upson is also still missing with an ankle problem.

United still have a raft of players unavailable, although it’s debatable how many of the likes of Ashley Young, Michael Carrick, Marounae Fellaini and Chris Smalling will still be considered first team regulars even when they are fully fit.

Youth prospects James Wilson and Jesse Lingard are also absent through injury, while defender Phil Jones remains sidelined with a hamstring problem. Radamel Falcao could make his first start for the club after coming off the bench against QPR.

Head-to-Head

United have won the last ten games they have played against the Foxes and kept clean sheets in eight of them.

Leicester actually had quite a good record prior to that against these opponents in the days when Martin O’Neill prowled the sidelines as they won two and drew three of six before the start of their capitulation to the Red devils. Ruud van Nistelrooy grabbed a hat-trick in a 4-1 win the only time these sides have met at the Walkers Stadium ten years ago.

Recommended Bets
It seems the memories of an awful start have been largely forgotten as the visitors are huge favourites at 4/6 with Leicester a huge 9/2 despite both sides sitting level on points.

At a better price of 3/4 I’d take both teams to score far quicker, or for those looking to avoid odds-on bets the 7/4 on more than 3.5 goals going in catches the eye with two questionable defences on show. United’s firepower is, however, beyond question and anyone backing an away win may be as well served by the 31/20 on -1 in the handicap betting.