Man United vs Tottenham Preview: Carrick's Test, De Zerbi's Last Stand at Old Trafford

Old Trafford has rarely seen a match quite like this: Manchester United host Tottenham on Saturday night — 5:30pm BST, 9:30pm PKT — with both managers arriving under a kind of pressure they would never admit to in public.

Michael Carrick took the job full-time after guiding United to third last season and back into the Champions League. The start, though, has been indifferent: one win, two draws and two defeats from five, five points, twelfth place — and only one victory over bottom-of-the-table Ipswich to show for it. Saturday is the kind of game a manager wins to stop the noise, or loses to make it unbearable.

The team news hardly helps Carrick's mood. Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte remain sidelined, Patrick Dorgu is out for several weeks with a muscle injury, and summer signing Benjamin Sesko is still not fit enough to start. Noussair Mazraoui is unlikely to feature after returning from international duty short of full fitness, while Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo, Karl Darlow and Amad Diallo are all being assessed. This weekend's fixtures are piling up the storylines, and this one has the rawest edge of them all.

Tottenham's troubles run deeper. Roberto De Zerbi's side are bottom of the table — two points, no wins, five games without one — and they know a first victory at Old Trafford would lift them out of the drop zone and level with United. The visitors are missing Dejan Kulusevski, Mykhailo Mudryk, Pedro Porro, Wilson Odobert and Xavi Simons, but there is some relief: Micky van de Ven and Jan Paul van Hecke are available after their international knocks, and James Maddison is fit to play despite losing days to a training setback. There is a subplot in plain sight, too — United are among the clubs watching Van de Ven, freshly signed to a new Spurs deal, and he could be auditioning in front of his admirers.

The history says it will not be easy for anyone. United have won only one of their last nine league meetings with Tottenham — but that win was the last one, a 2-0 victory at this ground in February with goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes. Spurs have taken three points from Old Trafford just once in their last five visits. Bruno Fernandes, with three goals already this season and three of his four career goals against Spurs scored here, will fancy this stage.

Prediction: Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham. Spurs will make it ugly and stay in it for an hour, but United's home record in this fixture and Fernandes's habit of deciding these games tip it the Red Devils' way. De Zerbi's wait for a first win goes on.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons (view of Old Trafford from the East Stand) — free license; exact CC variant confirmed from the Commons file page.

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