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QPR v Manchester United Prediction
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Barclays Premier League
Queens Park Rangers v Manchester United, 12:00
Author: Thomas Rooney 14/12/2011
Manchester United will be aiming to go top of the Premier League on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Loftus Road to face Queens Park Rangers.
Manchester City’s lead at the top of the table was cut to two points last weekend and with Roberto Mancini’s men playing later on Sunday afternoon, a win at QPR would be enough to take United top for a couple of hours at least.
After the huge disappointment of crashing out of the Champions League, this would be a welcome boost for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men as they look to go on a winning run in the Premier League between now and the turn of the year.
Having got themselves in the goals again against Wolves last time out – they emerged as 4-1 winners at Old Trafford – they will now look to games against QPR, Fulham, Wigan and Blackburn with the genuine ambition of winning every single one of them.
If they do this, it only takes City to drop points in one game for United to end 2011 on top of the Premier League. After what has been an up and down start to the campaign, this would be hugely significant for them.
One thing that will be a worry though is their lack of options in midfield. Michael Carrick, Park Ji-sung, Darron Gibson and Ryan Giggs are the only specialist midfielders available, although versatile youngster Phil Jones has performed well in the middle recently.
With this in mind, a purchase of two in the January transfer window seems extremely likely as United continue to compete for major honours this year. Between now and then, as mentioned, they need to beat all the teams put in front of them to go into 2012 in a positive way.
Queens Park Rangers would love to put a stop to this though. They may well have stuttered recently – they haven’t won in their last three games – but against the bigger teams at home this year, they have given it a really good go.
They beat Chelsea 1-0 of course, but they also gave league leaders Manchester City a genuine run for their money. They may well have lost 3-2, but it showed how much Neil Warnock’s men can raise their game against the top teams in this league.
A home tie with Manchester United will be another special occasion for them and one the fans will be extremely excited about. The players will want to do themselves justice though and perhaps capitalise on a United side that doesn’t have as much strength in depth as usual.
QPR have crucial games against Sunderland and Swansea to come after this and it would be a major boost for them if they could go into these with a positive performance against the Premier League Champions at the very least.
Overall though, United should have too much. They do have their injuries, but there is still enough quality on the pitch for them to come away with a narrow away win.
Match bet: Manchester United on the Asian Handicap -1, -1.5 @ 2.100 with Bet365 - (£200 100% deposit bonus)
Correct score prediction: QPR 2:3 Manchester United @ 36 with Betfair
Watch Thomas Rooney and Pete South discuss the QPR v Manchester United game below together with their own predictions on the match.