The State of Play
Wolverhampton Wanderers come into this one on the back of a 2-0 defeat of West Bromwich Albion in the fourth round of the FA Cup in their most recent outing at The Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon. That means Wolverhampton Wanderers have now enjoyed a seven-match unbeaten run of form across all competitions as they try and push themselves towards the top-half of the table.
In their 31st match of the season across all competitions this season, Manchester United won just their fourth game by more than one goal as Rasmus Hojlund scored in second-half stoppage-time to make it 4-2 against League Two Newport County. The Red Devils have been more than underwhelming throughout this campaign and they will fall below their opponents with a defeat on Thursday afternoon.
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Team News
Gary O’Neil will remain without midfielder Boubacar Traore who is still away at the Africa Cup of Nations with Mali. Wolverhampton Wanderers are also set to be missing forward Hwang Hee-chan, as well as Pablo Sarabia, whilst Joao Gomes will serve the final game in his three-match suspension for a straight red card received against Brentford in the FA Cup last month.
The big talking point for Manchester United in terms of team news will be the return of Andre Onana, who has exited the Africa Cup of Nations having played just one of Cameroon’s four matches of the tournament. He is expected to come in and replace Altay Bayindir, who started their 4-2 defeat of Newport County on Sunday.
Expected Line-ups
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sa; Kilman, Dawson, Toti; Semedo, Doyle, Lemina, Doherty; Neto, Bellegarde; Cunha
Manchester United: Onana; Dalot, Varane, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Mainoo; Antony, Fernandes, Garnacho; Hojlund
What they Said
In the aftermath of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 2-0 defeat of West Brom in the Black Country Derby at the weekend, described the outing as a ‘fairly comfortable victory’ as their relatively impressive campaign continued in the cup.
Erik ten Hag has called for a bit more efficiency from his United attackers, such as Alejandro Garnacho and Antony, with their missed chances at 2-0 allowing Newport back into the game. “They had nothing, really nothing, then out of nothing they score a goal.”
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at Molineux on Thursday February 1st at 20:15 and will be shown live on TNT Sports in the UK. It will be able to be streamed live via the TNT Sports app.
Prediction
In ten matches in the Premier League at Molineux so far this season, Wolverhampton Wanderers have suffered just two defeats and they were their first two games at home against Brighton and Hove Albion and Liverpool. Since then they have enjoyed victories over the likes of Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. They now face a Manchester United side that will be flattered by being in the fairly poor position of eighth so a home win would actually appear fairly likely as a result of all of that.
