Manchester United vs. Sunderland Preview: EPL 2007-08

English Premier League 2007-2008 season was started on 11 August. Three weeks have already gone in English Premier League 2007-2008 season. However, the favorite teams could not start the season in style. Defending champion Manchester United’s performance was really very poor in the season and after playing four matches, Manchester United is now in 10^th position in the table. Arsenal stands in no. 6 and Liverpool stands in no. 4 in the league table. However, last season’s runner up Chelsea is now leading the league table.

Manchester United and Sunderland are going to face each other on next Saturday on 1 September 2007. Both teams have already played four matches of the ongoing season of English Premier League (EPL). Sunderland could earn only 4 points yet whereas Manchester United could earn 5 points. Sunderland is now at 16^th position in the league table. It seems that they have to think about avoiding relegation from now on. On the other hand, for Manchester United, every match is now very vital because they have already lost many points and if they want to defend the Premiership title then they have to achieve almost all the points as much as possible. Otherwise, the points they have lost yet will be vital to defend their title.

Manchester United started the season with an ordinary draw against the newly promoted Derby County. Manchester United followed their poor performance in the second match as well. Manchester United could make a 1-1 draw against Portsmouth. However, the defending champion Manchester United got a big struck in the third match against their cross town rival Manchester City. ManU suffered a 0-1 defeat against Manchester City in the first Manchester Derby of the season. If these bring bad feeling to you then the worst is that Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has fallen in injury and he has to be out of the field for several weeks. In addition, Cristiano Ronaldo, another ManU star, is now in his three match suspension which will last till the upcoming match against Sunderland. Manchester United got their first victory of the season in their fourth match against Tottenham Hotspur in Old Traford last Sunday.

Manchester United is undoubtedly one of the strongest contenders of English Premier League 2007. On other hand, Sunderland is struggling to stay in Premier League. They have been promoted to Premier League this season. Sunderland was relegated after the 2005-2006 season. However, they could return the elite league just after one season.

Sunderland started the 2007-2008 season in style. In the first match, they got a 1-0 win over the Tottenham Hotspur. Sunderland could draw against Birmingham City in the second match. However, the last two matches they could not perform well. In the third match they suffered a crushing defeat by Wigan Athletic. Sunderland’s fourth match was against league favorite Liverpool. They lost the match by 0-2. So, it is easily understandable that the recent performance of Sunderland is not satisfactory and that is why, coach Roy Keane now might be worry about the next match against his former club Manchester United.

In terms of strength, Manchester is far more ahead of Sunderland. Though Manchester lost two of their key players, they still have some players who can recover the lost of those two players. Captain Gary Neville, midfielder Owen Hargreaves, Anderson are playing well. Newly recruit Portuguese midfielder Nani is in form. In striking position, they have Argentine star Carlos Tévez, Louis Saha of France who can fill the gap of Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

On the other hand, Sunderland coach former Irish footballer Roy Keane might be the biggest star. Roy Keane spent his golden time of his career in Manchester United and he also led the side for several years. Former ManU footballer Dwight Yorke is now the most important player of Sunderland. English striker Andy Cole is the striking partner of Yorke in Sunderland.

So, you can easily understand that Manchester United is favorite in the Saturday match and I think Manchester United will try not to lose point any point. However, it is also true that football is a team game and here to get some success almost all the players need to play well and need some help from fate. So, I will not be surprised if Sunderland causes another upset in English Premier League 2007-2008 season.

Online Live Score

I know that many of you will not be able to manage time to go to Old Trafford to see the Manchester United vs Sunderland match. Even, to many of you will not be able to stick to your TV set to watch the match because of your personal and professional works. So, thinking of those busy but die hearted fans, I am going to give some website links that provide online live score. The links of the websites are as follows: