Bournemouth are flying high so far but Manchester United are taken to continue their Premier League revival in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off.
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Bournemouth v Man Utd (1230 GMT BT Sport)
Manchester United's mini-revival faces another test Saturday lunchtime with a trip to the Vitality Stadium to face a Bournemouth side enjoying their best-ever start and sitting three points and two places above Jose Mourinho's men in the table.
United have won on their last two visits and have won four of the last five against the Cherries, but Eddie Howe's side are much improved this term and even at the back they've tightened up with three clean sheets on the spin.
The one caveat to their fine start is that Bournemouth have only faced one of the 'big six' teams so far and in fact have only faced three teams currently in the top half of the table, so expectations need to be tempered somewhat, but there's no denying they're in great form.
Jose Mourinho still has a long way to go to silence his seemingly omnipresent critics as even when he's been picking up points recently he's still coming under fire - only a commanding win here will give him some breathing space but the way Bournemouth have started makes that a much more difficult prospect than in previous years.
Betting guide
Prediction: Bournemouth 1-2 Man Utd (Sky Bet odds: 15/2)
Bournemouth are flying high but that rather soft schedule so far is a cause for concern and if they come flying out of the traps that could play into Mourinho's counter-attacking hands. Many of the ingredients are there for Bournemouth to take a prize scalp, but United have had a week off to prepare and that spells danger for the hosts.
Best bet: Man Utd to win at 21/20
Sometimes it pays to just keep it simple and although they've not exactly been sparkling of late, I expect United to get the job done, somehow. Mourinho's side has shown a lot of character of late and there's undoubted ability within that squad. They won't be odds against to beat Bournemouth too often and it's worth taking.
Special: Man Utd to & both teams to score at 11/4
David De Gea has kept just one clean sheet this season, and for a keeper of his quality that tells you how poor United have been at the back. Bournemouth have shown more than enough to suggest they can breach that porous back line but with the visitors still taken to win.
RequestABet: Over 2.5 goals, both teams to score, 8+ match corners, Martial to score at 4/1
Goals at both ends expected and there are usually plenty of corners in Bournemouth games - in fact there have been eight in more in all but one this season. Martial has been banging in goals for fun of late but more importantly he's looked by far the most threatening United player so we're riding the hot hand on that front.
Bournemouth v Man Utd Opta stats
- Bournemouth are unbeaten in six Premier League home games (W4 D2), with their last defeat at the Vitality Stadium coming against Manchester United in April (0-2).
- Man Utd have won just two of their last seven away Premier League games (W2 D2 L3).
- In their 10 Premier League games this season, Man Utd have conceded 17 goals and kept just one clean sheet; after 10 games last term, they’d conceded just four goals and kept eight clean sheets.
- Man Utd striker Romelu Lukaku has scored six goals in his last three Premier League meetings with Bournemouth, including netting in both matches for the Red Devils last season.
- Man Utd’s Anthony Martial has scored in each of his last three Premier League games (4 goals in total) – he’s never scored in four in a row in the competition.
- Under Jose Mourinho, Paul Pogba has been directly involved in more goals in all competitions than any other Man Utd player (20 goals, 22 assists).
- Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson has been directly involved in nine goals in 10 Premier League games this season (5 goals, 4 assists) – just one fewer than he was in 28 games last term (8 goals, 2 assists).
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Posted at 1225 GMT on 01/11/18