Wolverhampton Wanderers FC – Manchester United FC betting tip & odds comparison 31.12.2022
Manchester United will be looking to get a hat-trick of Premier League wins when they travel to Molineux to lock horns with Wolverhampton Wanderers in Saturday’s early kickoff.
The Wolves have struggled this season as they sit 18th on the table as they continue battling relegation while United are 5th on the log, a point behind fourth-placed Tottenham but with a game in hand on the Londoners.
There is a lot to play for here which makes this an intriguing encounter. We shall explore our Premier League predictions for this game from Playabet and Cyberbet.
WOLVERHAMPTON
A 2-0 win over Gillingham in the 5th round of the EFL Cup followed by a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Everton in their Boxing Day Premier League fixture have gotten Julen Lopetegui’s reign as Wolves head coach off to a perfect start. The 56-year-old Spanish tactician has serious credentials having managed Real Madrid and Spain in the course of his career and his arrival at Molineux appears to have given them a bit of extra juice.
The win over Everton moved them to 18th on the table, just a point behind 17th-placed Everton as they try to navigate their way out of the relegation territory. The Wolves have a busy slate at the beginning of the year following this game with a congested fixture that will see them face Aston Villa in the league followed by Liverpool in the FA Cup and Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup in quick succession.
Wolves would need to improve their woeful home record if they are to dig themselves out of this hole. They have lost their last 3 league matches at home while conceding nine goals.
MANCHESTER UNITED
Man United, meantime, will come into this match in high spirits after also winning both of their matches after the World Cup while keeping clean sheets. A 2-0 win over Burnley saw them progress to the quarterfinal of the EFL Cup and they followed that with an emphatic 3-0 win at home over Nottingham Forest courtesy of strikes from Rashford, Martial and Fred.
Erik ten Hag’s side are now in 5th place with 29 points from 15 matches, just a point off of fourth-placed Tottenham and they have certainly shown signs of progress under the Dutch tactician after a rather shaky start to his managerial career at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils have the fifth-best away record in the Premier League this season, picking up 13 points from eight matches, but the one area they still need to improve is their defensive record on the road as they have soaked in 16 goals in their 8 away games this season.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
WOLVERHAMPTON
- Sa
- Bueno
- Kilman
- Collins
- Semedo
- Moutinho
- Neves
- Hodge
- Traore
- Costa
- Hwang
- COACH: Julen Lopetegui
- MISSING PLAYERS: Traore (Knock), Chiquinho (Cruciate ligament), Podence (Leg), Jonny (Hamstring), Neto (Ankle), Kalajdzic (Cruciate ligament)
MAN UNITED
- De Gea
- Wan-Bissaka
- Varane
- Shaw
- Malacia
- Casemiro
- Eriksen
- Antony
- Fernandes
- Rashford
- Martial
- COACH: Erik ten Hag
- MISSING PLAYERS: Tuenzebe (injured), Dalot (Hamstring), Maguire (Illness), Sancho (injured), McTominay (Illness), Lindelof (Illness)
WOLVES VS MAN UNITED PREDICTIONS
Lopetegui has certainly brought the feel-good factor within the Wolves squad and this will be a good game for him and his team to gauge just how much progress they have made and what other areas of improvement they need to work on. We expect a particularly tight start to the game. The Wolves have really struggled defensively at home and we reckon that is certainly atop Lopetegui’s coaching report. These two teams have been engaged in dogfights in recent years. Wolves actually won 1-0 at Old Trafford in the reverse game and that will give them a confidence boost. We feel there will be limited scoring opportunities in the first half but this should yield to more opportunities in the 2nd. As such we are backing the 2nd half to have more goals than the 1st @ 2.05 with Playabet Welcome Bonus as our first tip here.
Again, we expect this to be a rough and rugged encounter that is going to be extra physical from kickoff. 4 of the last 5 encounters between these two sides have had at least 5 bookings and we strongly feel this game is on the same trajectory. Cyberbet have priced Over 4.5 Bookings @ 2.08 and we are going with that option as the last of our betting tips for today.
Performance
Wolverhampton Wanderers performance of the last 5 home matches
Manchester United performance of the last 5 away matches
Current Standing
| POS | TEAM | PTS | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
1
|
Manchester City
|
89 | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 94 | 33 | 61 |
|
2
2
|
Arsenal FC
|
84 | 38 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 88 | 43 | 45 |
|
4
3
|
Manchester United
|
75 | 38 | 23 | 6 | 9 | 58 | 43 | 15 |
|
3
4
|
Newcastle United FC
|
71 | 38 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 68 | 33 | 35 |
|
5
5
|
Liverpool FC
|
67 | 38 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 75 | 47 | 28 |
|
6
6
|
Brighton & Hove Albion FC
|
62 | 38 | 18 | 8 | 12 | 72 | 53 | 19 |
|
7
7
|
Aston Villa FC
|
61 | 38 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 51 | 46 | 5 |
|
8
8
|
Tottenham Hotspur
|
60 | 38 | 18 | 6 | 14 | 70 | 63 | 7 |
|
9
9
|
Brentford FC
|
59 | 38 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 58 | 46 | 12 |
|
10
10
|
Fulham FC
|
52 | 38 | 15 | 7 | 16 | 55 | 53 | 2 |
|
11
11
|
Crystal Palace FC
|
45 | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 40 | 49 | -9 |
|
12
12
|
Chelsea FC
|
44 | 38 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 38 | 47 | -9 |
|
13
13
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers FC
|
41 | 38 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 31 | 58 | -27 |
|
14
14
|
West Ham United FC
|
40 | 38 | 11 | 7 | 20 | 42 | 55 | -13 |
|
15
15
|
AFC Bournemouth
|
39 | 38 | 11 | 6 | 21 | 37 | 71 | -34 |
|
16
16
|
Nottingham Forest FC
|
38 | 38 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 38 | 68 | -30 |
|
17
17
|
Everton FC
|
36 | 38 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 34 | 57 | -23 |
|
18
18
|
Leicester City FC
|
34 | 38 | 9 | 7 | 22 | 51 | 68 | -17 |
|
19
19
|
Leeds United FC
|
31 | 38 | 7 | 10 | 21 | 48 | 78 | -30 |
|
20
20
|
Southampton FC
|
25 | 38 | 6 | 7 | 25 | 36 | 73 | -37 |
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