Stoke City vs. Manchester United - 01.01.2015

The early date of the first round for the year 2015 in the English Premier League sent Manchester United to a visit of the team of Stoke City. Both teams come into this match in good condition after Stoke reduced the problems at home, but United had no loss from nine consecutive rounds. The bad news, regarding both teams, is that there are many injured players in both of them. Therefore, the managers may have some problems.

Mark Hughes has achieved some consecutive wins for the first time that season after the last round just two days after he released a previous unchanged team. He probably wouldn't want to change anything in attempts of achieving any better results, but how will his guys handle the third game in less than a week? Surely, it will be stressful for them.

Boyan Krkic proved to be very influential for the condition of Stoke in the last time but his participation in the today’s game is still questionable. Odemvingi, Moses, Sidwell and Barsley remain injured, but there is no sure info about Stephen Ireland.

The situation for Manchester United is improving but looking at it overall, it doesn't seem good in terms of the injured footballers. Daley Blind, Jesse Lingard, Marwan Felaini and Markus Rojo are injured, and the participation of Antonio Valencia, Angel di Maria, Ander Herrera and Adnan is still questionable.

Van Gaal also did not change the structure of his team only 48 hours after a game played, and now it is expected for us to see some changes. Antonio Valencia was replaced by Rafael in both matches, as the Brazilian can now start the game, taking advantage of his trauma.

Stoke always puts ordeal when the team welcomes rivals at home in harsh weather conditions and last year this team beat the Red Devils here. Everything will be decided by the ability of the managers to use enough of the restored and fresh players in their teams.

Some useful stats and facts for you:

Last 5 played games:

Stoke City

6 December: Stoke City-Arsenal: 3:2 (Premier League)

13 December: Crystal Palace-Stoke City 1:1 (Premier League)

22 December: Stoke City-Chelsea: 0:2 (Premier League)

26 December: Everton-Stoke City 0:1 (Premier League)

28 December: Stoke City-West Bromwich: 2:0 (Premier League)

Manchester United

8 December: Southampton-Manchester United 1:2 (Premier League)

14 December: Manchester United-Liverpool 3:0 (Premier League)

20 December: Aston Villa-Manchester City: 1:1 (Premier League)

26 December: Manchester City-Newcastle: 3:1 (Premier League)

28 December: Tottenham-Manchester United: 0:0 (Premier League)

Previous matches

Stoke City-Manchester United

100 matches in total

26 wins for Stoke City

32 draws

42 wins for Manchester United

Goal difference: 155:117 for Manchester United

The football forecast of 24FootballTips for the event today is for a final result of 1:2 in favor of Manchester United.