What a difference a week makes!  After an encouraging start to the season for Manchester United under Jose Mourinho, three straight defeats have eradicated the early optimism at Old Trafford and the pressure will be on the Red Devils to respond in Saturday lunchtime’s clash with defending champions Leicester City.
It should make for an intriguing game and one that that should see some of the best Premier League betting offers available for the weekend’s televised matches.
There will surely be changes to the United team following Sunday’s lacklustre 3-1 defeat at Watford, with the midfield in desperate need of an overhaul.  If Wayne Rooney starts one has to believe that it can only be due to contractual obligations, as his performances certainly don’t warrant his continued selection.
There are calls in some quarters for Michael Carrick to be recalled and there is a definite need for someone able to pass the ball and control the tempo in the middle of the park.  With the likes of Ander Herrera, Morgan Schneiderlin, Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Daley Blind also all available, Mourinho has to be able to come up with a more creative combination than was on show at Vicarage Road and to make better use of Paul Pogba’s expensively secured talents in a more prominent role.
Mourinho also has decisions to make elsewhere, particularly with regards to his team having the requisite width going forward.   Deploying Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial out wide at Watford wasn’t terribly successful.
In contrast to Mourinho, Leicester counterpart Claudio Ranieri should be in an upbeat mood (isn’t he always?).  The Foxes come into the match in fine form, having bounced back from a 4-1 drubbing at Liverpool to register impressive back-to-back 3-0 victories, first with a memorable Champions League debut win away to Club Brugge, then at home to Burnley in the Premier League.
The victory over the Clarets featured a nigh on perfect Premier League debut from club record signing Islam Slimani, who marked his first appearance at the King Power Stadium with two headed goals and an excellent performance in general.
With Slimani the Foxes now have someone who offers them a physical presence in the box, enabling them to vary their (hugely successful) tactics from the reliance on the pace of Jamie Vardy on the counter-attack. Â With Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton, Ranieri certainly has players who can supply the crosses that the Algerian target man thrives on.
With the depth and quality available to Ranieri following a productive transfer window, he can now afford to rotate his squad to some degree without noticeably weakening his starting XI.  With Tuesday’s second Champions League group game at home to Porto in mind, there could be a certain amount of the old tinkering that Ranieri was once famed for.
Leicester did go down to that heavy defeat at Liverpool in the match prior to making their Champions League debut and it would be understandable were their focus to again be somewhat distracted by thoughts of their first ever home match in the competition, with Porto (more high-profile and glamorous opposition than the Belgians) on Tuesday evening.
It has to be said that Manchester United offer precious little of the attacking pace and variation that Liverpool possess to suggest that they could hand out a similar beating to the Foxes, but they might just benefit from playing Leicester ahead of what must surely be the visitors most eagerly anticipated game of the season to date.
This is a game where all the pressure is on United and with patience among the Old Trafford faithful likely to be in short supply after three seasons of under-achievement, anything less than three points here could be damaging for a team where confidence is already clearly somewhat fragile (Zlatan Ibrahimovic aside obviously).
Saturday’s game could have a significant bearing on both teams for the season ahead.  A Manchester United victory could re-invigorate their campaign.  Anything less and it will be Leicester who will go home believing that they can be genuine top-four contenders again.
Jose Maurinho should talk less n concentrate on his team’s tactical n development. I think if Jose already won all the matches MU played thus far, he start talking very arrogant and condemn other managers specially Arsene Winger of Arsenal.