The renowned winter footballing schedule is well and truly underway across Europe, with football coming thick and fast in the coming months, and this week, all eyes are on the English Premier matchday 14.
The matchday’s standout fixture sees Arsenal host Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium in a blockbuster clash between two of England’s biggest club teams, with the Gunners aiming to close the gap on the top of the league, while Man United are still getting to grips with the new system under Ruben Amorim.
Arsenal vs Manchester United
Wednesday 4 December, 21:15
Emirates Stadium
Arsenal initially made a brilliant start to the 2024/25 season, remaining unbeaten in their first 10 matches across all competitions with seven wins and three draws, but that came to a crashing end as they lost 2-0 to Bournemouth in mid-October.
While they bounced back with two wins and a draw, they fell back into a poor run as they lost back-to-back matches to Newcastle United and Inter Milan before drawing with Chelsea, a run that saw them fall further behind Liverpool in the title race.
The Gunners have rebounded in style in their last three outings, demolishing Nottingham Forest, Sporting Lisbon and West Ham United with a 13-3 aggregate score in their favour, leaving them with huge confidence heading into this one.
They now trail Liverpool by nine points after 13 matches, and if they stand any chance of catching the Reds, then Mikel Arteta’s men must pick up all three points from this potential stumbling block fixture.
Manchester United, in comparison, had a dismal start to the campaign, winning just four of their first 14 matches across all competitions, losing five in that time, a run that culminated in the sacking of Erik ten Hag.
Ruud van Nistelrooy steadied the ship in his four interim matches, winning three and drawing one, before the arrival of new manager Ruben Amorim was confirmed, and the Portuguese has made a brilliant start at Old Trafford.
Man United drew 1-1 with Ipswich Town in their first match, followed by dominating victories against Bodo/Glimt and Everton, the latter of which was a 4-0 win, a scoreline Ten Hag never managed in the Premier League.
While they will be high on confidence and belief from those results, they are still learning the new system under Amorim, and are certainly still the underdogs heading to the Emirates Stadium, where they have failed to win in any of the last six visits.
Arsenal Predicted XI: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Calafiori; Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Manchester United Predicted XI: Onana; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Shaw; Diallo, Casemiro, Ugarte, Dalot; Rashford, Fernandes, Hojlund
Bet9ja Tips
Arsenal are the overwhelming favourites heading into this game given their superiority over Man United in both the league standings and in their recent meetings, and a win here would create history for the Gunners, who could record four successive league wins over Man United for the first time.
While Man United have been improved under Van Nistelrooy and Amorim, they are still learning the new system and are a far cry from Mikel Arteta’s finished product, leading us to believe the Gunners will win here.
Bukayo Saka has scored in two of his last three appearances against Man United, and the winger is in red hot form coming into this game, having scored in each of his last three appearances. With this, we believe Saka will continue his scoring exploits with another goal here, and you can get odds for this to happen anytime of 2.40 at Bet9ja.
Bet9ja Odds (at time of writing): Arsenal win: 1.42, Draw: 4.80, Manchester United win: 7.70
Best Booking Codes:
Arsenal to win & over 1.5 goals – BDQHFK
Saka to score anytime – BDQKMG
