(“They’re behind you!” Antonio Valencia tries in vain to find his team mates, who have become invisible thanks to that magical grey kit)
Manchester United will have an opportunity to wear their new grey third kit when they play Southampton at St.Mary’s on Saturday. If they do, then it will be the first time they have worn it in the top flight since they wore it in a 3-1 defeat at yes, you guessed it, Southampton.
On that day, back in 1996, Ferguson ordered the team to change their kit at half-time, blaming it for the players having become invisible whilst wearing it and being unable to see each other on the pitch.
It made no difference and United, who had been 3-0 down at the break, went on to score a consolation goal but still lost the game 3-1.
Lee Sharpe was more accurate with his summing up of the defeat, “I’m not sure if any of the players mentioned the kit,” he recalled in The Guardian in 2006. “Personally I felt that we were playing poorly and that we couldn’t really blame anything or anyone but ourselves.”
Of course, United may choose not to wear the grey kit as they have a perfectly good second kit which is blue and also won’t clash with the red and white stripes of Southampton.
Anyway, whatever they wear, they should be able to continue their winning streak as Southampton haven’t really shown anything this season which would make United wary of them.
After the midweek Carabao Cup win, Saturday should see the return of Romelu Lukaku, David De Gea and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and we expect United to win this game 3-1.
Meanwhile, back in Manchester, City take on Crystal Palace and their new manager, Mr. Roy.
Both teams had success in midweek in the Carabao cup and Palace will be looking to use it as a springboard to better league results in the future.
It is unlikely that a change of fortune is going to come at The Etihad though, where City will welcome back Sergio Agüero, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva amongst others.
At West Bromwich Albion, City had looked quite susceptible to some sustained pressure from the home team and, in the end, were quite fortunate to escape with the win. Only Leroy Sané’s abiltity to finish coupled with West Brom’s inability to do the same, swung the match in City’s favour.
Even against Palace the impression is that Guardiola’s men must, and will, play better as it only takes a slice of luck, the missing ingredient for the home team at The Hawthorns, to turn the match the way of the Londoners.
A better performance from City will see them win this game by United’s current favourite score, 4-0.
As for the rest of the games involving the “Big Six“, there shouldn’t be any major surprises.
Cheslea are away at Stoke City where, like Manchester United before them, they will pick up a point, but this time the score will be 1-1.
Tottenham play West Ham United at The London Stadium. There are similarities to Wembley with this ground and those similarities don’t end with them both being new grounds for London clubs. West Ham find it difficult to win at home in much the same way as Tottenham do and settling in has been a problem.
However, after a decent result in the Carabao Cup, we can see West Ham going on to narrowly win this game 2-1.
Liverpool will lose again against Leicester City, just as they did on Tuesday and probably by the same score, so expect a 2-0 defeat for Jürgen Klopp and his merry men.
On Monday night stubborn old man welcomes West Bromwich Albion to The Emirates. On the field Tony Pulis is more than capable of out-stubborning Arséne Wenger and, if he manages to do so on Monday, then he will leave London with a point. The final score will be 1-1.
That’s it, get yourselves straight down to the bookies and place some accumulators on these results, how can you fail?
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 