In contrast to tradition, only one match is being played on Boxing Day this year as fixture congestion takes its toll, depriving us of the usual full Premier League schedule on 26 December.
But if there’s to be just the one match played on Boxing Day, it’s not a bad one.
Manchester United vs Newcastle: Premier League Football
- Start: Friday, 26 December, 20:00.
- Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester
- Coverage: Sky Sports Main Event
- Fun Fact: Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes has registered more minutes than any other top-level player in world football since he arrived at Manchester United in 2010.
Betting
Hosts Manchester United are 2.50 with Ladbrokes to beat Newcastle.
Newcastle are 2.70 to win, with the draw 3.40. So, all pretty even in terms of the match betting.
If the bookies are finding it hard to split the two teams on the primary market, they certainly expect goals in this game, making over 2.5 goals the favourite at 1.65, with even over 3.5 goals just a 2.6 chance.
So, who might get those goals?
We’ll come to some key absences in a second, but Newcastle’s Nick Woltemade, fresh from a brace against Chelsea last weekend, is a good place to start. He’s 2.7 to score, 5.5 to be the first goalscorer and 8.5 to score two goals or more.
Newcastle skipper Bruno Guimaraes, who has been chipping in with some important goals of late, is 3.75 to score anytime and 9/1 to grab the opener.
As for Manchester United, in the absence of two of their key players in attack, much may depend on Matheus Cunha, so it’s no surprise he’s just 2.5 to score anytime.
Summary
These two sides have had to overcome a few difficulties already this season, but have both recovered pretty well. Man Utd are now up to seventh place on 26 points, and Newcastle are just three points worse off than them.
The famous 3-4-3 system that Ruben Amorim insists on playing seems to be finally paying dividends. It’s taken its time, but both the players and fans seem to have accepted it and embraced it with results much better of late.
But Amorim certainly hasn't had it all his own way these last few days. He always knew he was going to be without Amad Diallo, Bryan Mbeumo, and Noussair Mazraoui, who are on African Cup of Nations duty; three extremely important players who start most matches for United.
He certainly didn’t expect to also be without inspirational skipper Bruno Fernandes, who suffered a muscle injury in defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend, entirely out of the blue.
It was a particularly bitter pill for Amorim to swallow, given Fernandes’ excellent injury record, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Portuguese manager, with those three players away at AFCON for the next few weeks.
Newcastle will therefore see this as an opportunity to grab at least a point.
They’re in decent form and have lost just one of their last seven in all competitions, games played in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup, so they will fancy their chances here.
The Christmas period can go a long way to making or breaking a team’s season, so the outcome of this match could give us a big clue as to where these two teams are heading.
William Hill makes it 4.5 that Man Utd will secure a Top 4 finish, with Newcastle much bigger than that at 15.0.
Betting Tip of the Week: Newcastle United to score over 1.5 goals @2.15 with Spinbetter
A good bet in the Man Utd vs Newcastle game is that the visitors can score two goals, irrespective of the final outcome of the match.
It’s something they’ve achieved in five of their last six matches in all competitions, and let’s face it, Man Utd aren’t the greatest of defences in European football, so we can be confident here.
