Are Man Utd heading for another fall?

While the mighty Man Utd have had a difficult last few weeks they still sit fourth in the league and a big favourites to crush teams like AFCB who sit down in the bottom half of the table. Their inability to shoot on target is now giving plenty of scope for the media to get their teeth into Luis vaan Gaal's side and the pressure on players like Martial, Lingard and Mata will only grow if they draw another blank down on the south coast.

Josh King has more reason than most to play well against
Utd having been on their books for four years.

In some ways the Cherries might have been expecting for this to be one of the hardest games of the season last August when the fixture list was first seen. I expect that it will indeed be viewed as such by Eddie Howe and his men, but it is not the Man Utd of old where the team list would frighten any opponent before a ball was even kicked. Now Luis vaan Gall says Manu Utd are no longer the team that is expected to win every game "that was the past," he said this week in his press conference - well I do hope so when it comes to today. I think the criticism is over the top on Man Utd but I hope their fans have even more to moan about after today's game. But still £250 million is a lot of money to spend and look at the players they have sold on.

They still have their list of experienced internationals in the squad like Schweinsteiger (out for this game and the next two), Blind, Smalling (injured), Mata and Fellaini, to name a few and Wayne Rooney who is also not available for selection this time. Luis van Gaal will not be hoping to have to use any excuses though if they have another dismal display. But for all there woes Man Utd have a goal difference of 10 that is only headed by Leicester City, Arsenal and Man City.

Goal scoring has really been a big stumbling block for the Red Devils and with five goals in their last six games, it is understandable that some of the old faithful are shaking their heads at the stats last Premier League match that read 21 shots and one on target for vaan Gaal's side. Still they are seven games unbeaten since the 3-0 drubbing by Arsenal. One win in their last five away games though, is that the record of potential champions? With such an open Premier League though, Man Utd have every chance of making it theirs and it is games like these that will decide when there trophy is going next May. Keep losing these kinds of games though and they could find themselves outside the top four fairly quickly.

Away from home they do tend to pick up a few draws and the secret of that is that they don't concede hardly at all. It's de Gea that is the rock that AFCB will have trouble with if their shooting is not spot on. But I wonder what odds you could have got a week ago on an AFCB double to beat Chelsea and Man Utd? 

UTIAD! Enjoy the game tonight. You can still send in your score predictions on Twitter to @peterbell19

Check out my interview with United Pages ahead of today's game.

Man Utd Away Form
LDDWD

AFCB Home Form
WDLLD 

Possible AFCB team: (4-5-1) Boruc (GK), Smith (RD), Francis (CD), Cook (CD), Daniels (LD), Ritchie (RM), Arter (CM), Gosling (CM), Surman (CM), Stanislas (LM), King (FW)

Cherries' Bench: Allsop (GK), Bennett (LD), Distin (CD), Tomlin (CM/FW), MacDonald (CM), Pugh (LM), Murray (FW)

Man Utd

Chris Smalling and Matteo Darmien are injury worries for Utd.

Man Utd team from: De Gea, Romero, Johnstone, Valdes, Darmian, Jones, McNair, Smalling, Varela, Blind, Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera, Lingard, Mata, Pereira, Schneiderlin, Young, Depay, Martial, Rooney.

Likely Man Utd Line up as predicted by Sky Sports.

Will Man Utd struggle to pick themselves up?

I thought there were a lot of positives on how Man Utd played in mid-week against Wolfsberg, which on the face of it is not great news for the Cherries. The Red Devils certainly created chances and worked the keeper and the sideways passing that has been so heavily criticised of van Gaal's side gave way to positive forward passing and high pressing. The problem for them is they still did not win and the effort that Man Utd put into that game could be an important factor when they take on the Cherries in the late Saturday kick off.

Lee Tomlin and Marc Pugh were back in training this week
and could make the sub's bench for AFCB.

I'd have expected Schweinsteiger to be dropped for the AFCB game even if he had not received a three match ban as Man Utd need Michael Carrick to set the pace in midfield and he should be fresher than most having only playing just over 20 minutes in midweek. There was a strong performances from Martial up front, but the Cherries will also have to be on guard for Fellaini at set-pieces. Memphis Depay will give them some crosses and they had plenty of players in the box at Wolfsberg, but Mata looked the main man one minute and out of sorts the next. Chris Smalling also picked up and injury and de Gea kept Man Utd from conceding on several occasions so there are signs that this is not a Man Utd that are brimming with confidence.

The first goal is going to be everything on Saturday. The Cherries need to get at Man Utd early and put them under pressure. If Utd end up chasing the game their midweek exertions may well catch up with them. They have to make some changes to their team and will not particularly find it a thrill to come to such a small ground with the home fans in full voice. The noise at Stamford Bridge was amazing and that really needs to be replicated at home games.  

Eddie has to try and keep the momentum going now. If the team can beat Chelsea it can beat Man Utd. The players have to do the same positive things that they do away from home and stay compact when defending. I'd not expect any team changes on AFCB's side unless any injuries or colds have been picked up in midweek. I'd hope that Josh King is also keener than ever to get on the score sheet as an ex-Man Utd trainee and Matt Ritchie might also get the Man Utd scouts purring if he comes up with another blockbuster strike. David de Gea is a man that the Cherries will be aiming to keep very busy this Saturday.

Another win against a team as big as Man Utd would start to shake up the Premier League and that's what AFCB are here for. UTCIAD!