Match Preview – Manchester United v Brighton
Manchester United – the club
Manchester United are the most successful club in English football history, although they have fallen on ‘hard times’ recently since Sir Alex Ferguson unplugged his hairdryer, with just the one FA Cup, one League Cup and one Europa League going into the Old Trafford trophy cabinet since 2013. José Mourinho is the man charged with bringing the glory days back and United are probably going to end up the nearest challengers to their neighbours in the blue half of Manchester who appear to already have the title sewn up barring a spectacular cock up. And if you don’t recognised United for footballing reasons, then you should recognise the name from half of your mates at school supporting them despite never having set foot in Old Trafford.
Manchester – the place
Manchester began to grow at a rapid rate around the turn of the 19th century, thanks in part to a boom in the textile industry which led it to become the world’s first industrialised city. It suffered a steep decline through the second half of the last century until the IRA decided to blow part of it up in 1996, which resulted in significant investment and regeneration. Manchester is now the third most visited city in Britain after London and Edinburgh.
Manchester – the people
People from Manchester are known as Mancunians and by and large will be found at the Etihad Stadium rather than Old Trafford. Celebrity fans include Usain Bolt (from Jamaica), Rory McLroy (Northern Ireland) and Miley Cyrus (America) who all support United due their close geographical links to the city rather than the glory.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Manchester United away
This is the Albion’s first visit to Old Trafford since 1993, although the WeAreBrighton.com team did visit to watch Team GB in the Olympics in 2012. This was a spectacular success as not only did Team GB win, but we also went to the best club in the world after. Drinks were £2 a Red Stripe and £1.50 a Vodka Red Bull and we were so much older than the student crowd that one member of the party was able to go around asking to see ID from people while posing as an undercover policeman and for it to be totally believable.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Manchester United away
Needless to say at £2.00 a Red Stripe and £1.50 a Vodka Red Bull, both the toilet and the sink in the hotel room were blocked with a significant amount of sick the following morning.
Played for both
Jesse Lingard was one of the more successful of the 176 forwards we’ve signed on loan in the Amex Era and has since gone into establish himself as a United and England squad regular. Alongside Lingard in Oscar Garcia’s squad that reached the Championship play offs in 2014 was Tomasz Kuszczak who moved to the Albion in the summer of 2012 after being released by United, presumably not for the same reasons we let him go two seasons later.
Dangermen
Where to start? Two of the five most important expensive players in the world in Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba play for United, as do Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford. Given the gulf in quality between the two squads, Mourinho probably won’t need to call upon his favourite player, Parked Bus.
Betting
The bookies have us priced at 22/1 to win which seems about right if we are being brutally honest. Given that our only two meetings so far this season with teams from the big six have ended 2-0, total goals under 2.5 at 6/5 seems a good price. To receive free bet codes, click here
Prediction
See above – 2-0 to United but the Albion will be far from disgraced.
