United couldn’t have asked for an easier fixture to pay tribute to their greatest manager who will be in-charge of his 1000th game. Sir Alex Ferguson reaches that ­milestone with Sunday’s trip to Southampton and remains as confrontational as ever, despite being 70 years old.

 

Preview :

Southampton :

The Saints were impressive away at Manchester City on the opening day, but were poor against Wigan at home last weekend and their home form will be vital this season. Nigel Adkins has worked wonders to bring a side from the brink of administration to the Premier League in just three years, but the Saints boss will be concerned at the struggle his side will face.

Probable Line-up

Davis
Clyne, Hooiveld, Fonte, Fox
Davis, Schneiderlin, Lallana
Rodriguez, Lambert, Lee

Adkins has two new signings at his disposal with striker Emmanuel Mayuka and Maya Yoshida ready to make their debuts against United after moving from BSC Young Boys and VVV-Venlo respectively. Southampton have also smashed their club record transfer fee for Bologna midfielder Gaston Ramirez, forking out £12m for the highly-rated Uruguayan. There will be sour memories for Saints fans for their fixture with United, after they were relegated in 2005 following a defeat to Ferguson’s side on the final day of the season.

Key Player : Rickie Lambert – always a goal threat even if he only comes on as sub

 

Manchester United :

 Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed Wayne Rooney’s lack of fitness was the reason behind his omission from the Manchester United side last weekend.

The nasty gash Rooney suffered in the 3-2 win over Fulham and which threatens to rule the striker out for a month obscured his failure to make the Reds starting line-up.

Will Rooney be missed or will RVP and co manage without him??

Instead, Ferguson preferred new-boys Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa, and with both scoring it seems unlikely Rooney would have forced his way into the team at Southampton on Sunday either.

Of more concern was his irritation at the Football Association, who he blames for releasing news of the knee injury that has kept Ashley Young out of the Southampton game, plus England’s World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine.

“It was nice of the FA to let everyone know Ashley Young is injured,” he said.

“There’s no point in giving them any information now.

“He’s out but it’s not serious and he’ll be ready in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Probable Line-up

De Gea
Rafael, Evans, Vidic, Evra
Cleverley, Carrick
Valencia, Kagawa, Nani
Van Persie

 

Ferguson also confirmed Jonny Evans will be available to partner skipper Nemanja Vidic in central defence following his summer ankle operation.

However, neither Rio Ferdinand nor Phil Jones will be considered even though they have returned to training following groin and back problems

 Key Player : Robin Van Persie. Last week he showed the world that he has started this year from where he left it last year : by scoring goals. If the Saints are to salvage any point from this game, they will have to stop United’s new hitman.

Prediction :

Southampton 1-3 Manchester Untied