The honeymoon is over for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as he takes his Manchester United team to high-flying Tottenham this weekend, writes GARY LEMKE.
The manner in which United fans far and wide have reacted to the Norwegian replacing Jose Mourinho as manager, and the instant success that he has tasted has been completely over the top. Wins against Cardiff, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Reading have been celebrated as if the glory days have returned to Old Trafford.
They are all games that even a beleaguered Mourinho would have been expected to win – although, admittedly, the manner in which the players have gone about their business with a smile on their faces has injected fresh belief and enthusiasm among everyone associated with United.
It remains shocking that big names like Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and others simply downed tools, which helped contribute to a sulking Mourinho sacked, with more than £15-million in compensation. I’ve said this for years: don’t cry for the pampered modern millionaire footballer. If you want loyalty, buy a dog.
However, there can be no denying that United are producing a better brand of attacking football under Solskjaer than they did under the more conservative Mourinho. They’ve scored 16 games in the above victories and have kept clean sheets in their last two. This Saturday in the English Premier League they face their first test – away (at Wembley) to a Tottenham side who are one of United’s Champions League rivals and whose manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has been actively wooed by the United faithful.
I expect it to be the game of the weekend with goals from both sides; I don’t see United keeping a third consecutive clean sheet, but Spurs were involved in a tough cup encounter against Chelsea during the week, and I’m going for a 2-2 draw in this match. That in itself means progress for United, but let’s not start anointing them as the best side in Manchester just yet, let alone in England.
This weekend throws up some interesting matches and it might be worth stating that World Sports Betting have five odds-on favourites, which will probably mean that they are banker wins for Superbru players. Those bankers are: Leicester (home to Southampton), Liverpool (away to Brighton), Chelsea (home to Newcastle), Everton (home to Bournemouth) and Manchester City (away to Wolves).
Chelsea are as short as 1-4 to beat Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, and while I think they’ll get the win, they’ll find Newcastle a tough side to break down. If I were to bet on the game, I’d take the 5-2 on offer for the score to be 0-0 at half-time.
Elsewhere, my ‘upset’ this week would be for Southampton to get something from their trip to Leicester. The latter are odds-on to win, and given that they beat both Chelsea and Man City on each side of Christmas they would seem nailed on to beat the visitors. However, they also lost to Cardiff and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Newport, so I’m suggesting that their inconsistent form gives the Saints a chance.
The most common scorelines so far this season are:
35 times: 2-1
32 times: 2-0
30 times: 1-0
24 times: 3-1
17 times: 1-1
14 times: 0-0
10 times: 3-0, 3-2, 2-2
7 times: 4-0
5 times: 4-1, 4-2
4 times: 5-1
3 times: 5-0
2 times: 6-1
1 time: 6-2, 3-3
Here are the SportsClub team’s predictions for this week’s round of fixtures.
West Ham vs Arsenal
Dylan Appolis (120/210): 1-3
Gary Lemke (115/210): 1-2
Juandre Joubert (113/210): 1-2
Wade Pretorius (112/210):
Dean Workman (107/210): 1-1
Brighton vs Liverpool
Dylan Appolis: 0-4
Gary Lemke: 0-2
Juandre Joubert: 0-2
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 0-2
Burnley vs Fulham
Dylan Appolis: 1-0
Gary Lemke: 1-1
Juandre Joubert: 1-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-0
Cardiff vs Huddersfield
Dylan Appolis: 1-0
Gary Lemke: 1-0
Juandre Joubert: 1-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-1
Crystal Palace vs Watford
Dylan Appolis: 0-1
Gary Lemke: 2-0
Juandre Joubert: 1-2
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-2
Leicester vs Southampton
Dylan Appolis: 2-0
Gary Lemke: 1-1
Juandre Joubert: 2-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-1
Chelsea vs Newcastle
Dylan Appolis: 2-0
Gary Lemke: 2-0
Juandre Joubert: 2-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 2-0
Everton vs Bournemouth
Dylan Appolis: 1-1
Gary Lemke: 2-1
Juandre Joubert: 1-0
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 3-2
Tottenham vs Man United
Dylan Appolis: 1-2
Gary Lemke: 2-2
Juandre Joubert: 2-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 1-2
Man City vs Wolves
Dylan Appolis: 3-1
Gary Lemke: 3-0
Juandre Joubert: 3-1
Wade Pretorius:
Dean Workman: 4-0
Lemke is the 2017/18 EPL Superbru Global champion
