Newcastle United vs Manchester United: 02/01/19 – match preview and predicted starting XIs

Manchester United travel to St James’ Park on Wednesday evening, with the Red Devils attempting to extend their unbeaten run of three matches against Rafael Benitez’ men who are winless in three.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will relish the opportunity to become only the second Manchester United manager in history to win his opening four games, emulating what Sir Matt Busby achieved 73 years ago. Victory for the visitors would extend their advantage over Leicester City to seven points, while simultaneously narrowing the gap to Arsenal in fifth to just three.

Failure to win in the form of either a draw or loss would likely extinguish the embers of Manchester United’s reignited European push, though they would remain in sixth place.

Meanwhile, Newcastle could leapfrog Crystal Palace if they were to cause an upset victory over an in-form Red Devils side and leave themselves up to six points clear of the drop.

Anything less than victory may cause the clubs circling below to enclose on Newcastle, a draw could leave the Magpies as little as a point above the relegation places, while a heavy defeat may put Newcastle in the bottom three.

Neither side will be able to field a full strength defence due to injury, Newcastle could be without Federico Fernandez, Ciaran Clark and Florian Lejeune. While Manchester United may be missing Chris Smalling, Marcus Rojo and the suspended Eric Bailly. Fabian Schar and Phil Jones are expected to deputise for their respected side’s backlines.

Fortunately for Solskjaer though Marcus Rashford should remain in the starting lineup after limping off last weekend against A.F.C Bournemouth, while Alexis Sanchez is also available after a lengthy injury layoff.

Ki Sung-Yueng remains unavailable for selection while he prepares to play for South Korea at the Asian Cup. However, Benitez will be delighted to have Jonjo Shelvey returning from a thigh injury, and the midfielder may be thrust into the starting eleven at Issac Hayden’s expense.

If St James’ Park is to witness any form of upset on Wednesday night, then Salomon Rondon will have to continue the impressive performances he has produced of late. The striker is integral to how Newcastle play, especially when they expect the opposition to have the majority of possession. As well as this, Rondon’s six Premier League goals this season are three times as many as any other Newcastle player.

Newcastle United: Dubravka; Schar, Lascelles, Dummett; Yedlin, Hayden, Diame, Ritchie; Perez, Atsu; Rondon

Manchester United: De Gea; Dalbot, Lindelof, Jones, Shaw; Herrera, Matic, Pogba; Lingard, Lukaku, Martial

Newcastle will attempt to remain tight defensively throughout and take their opportunities on the counter-attack or from set pieces, as they have done consistently under Benitez against top six opposition. Based on previous performances and Manchester United’s current form though it is unlikely this pragmatic approach will suffice, the visitors should win comfortably.