Hello, good evening and welcome to a mid-table tussle tonight’s big game in the Premier League. With apologies to West Ham and Bournemouth, any game involving Man United is still a story, and all the more so when one of their stars has turned into the prodigal son.
Wolves needn’t worry too much: they’re sitting comfortably after taking 14 points from their last seven league games. United may have forgotten what comfort even feels like. They’ve lost so often this season – 14 times in all comps – that every match is now an embarrassment waiting to happen.
On form, this looks very much like a home win. Wolves have won five of their last eight league games at Molineux and drawn the other three. During that run they’ve had three visitors from the so-called Big Six – Man City, Spurs and Chelsea – and sent them all away with nul points.
United’s away form, meanwhile, has gone from not bad to worse, with three defeats in the last four in the league. The other game was the only pleasant surprise they’ve given their travelling fans all season, when they somehow scraped a point at Anfield.
If Gary O’Neil’s intelligent tactics do bag a win tonight, Wolves will burst into the top half of the table – and they’ll go above United, whose goal difference always seems to be on their rivals’ side. If Luke Shaw and Erik ten Hag’s other returnees can deliver a win, United will jump from ninth to seventh, nipping past Newcastle and Brighton. They can achieve the same effect with a draw, but it won’t lift them out of the doldrums.
Will Marcus Rashford play? And if he does, will he maintain his little-noticed return to form, or go back to looking lost? Last time he was disciplined by Ten Hag, 13 months ago, United’s next game was at … Molineux. Demoted to the bench, Rashford came on at half-time and scored the only goal of the game. His team-mates – and his 17m followers on Instagram – may feel he owes them a repeat.
The kick-off is at 8.15pm, for reasons best known to TNT Sports. I’ll be back soon with the teams.