MONDAY PREMIER LEAGUE: The Striker previews MANCHESTER UNITED v WOLVES with FACTMAN stats and a recommended BETDAQ bet.
MANCHESTER UNITED V WOLVES
8pm The opening weekend in the Premier League ends with Monday Night Football on BETDAQ Betting Exchange as Manchester United host Wolves. You have to say it was a brilliant season for Erik ten Hag in his first year as Manchester United manager, but he’ll be hoping for a better start than last season! They started with a 2-1 loss here to Brighton, and then went on to lose 4-0 away from home against Brentford. In hindsight, maybe that turned out to be a good thing for ten Hag because it meant the owners gave him the money and players he wanted afterwards, and he transformed the team from there.
United have some big games coming up quickly this season, and they can’t afford to start slowly. They are away to Spurs and Arsenal within their first four games – in between those fixtures they have Nottingham Forest at home, and they’ll be fully expected to post wins against Wolves here and Forest – if they can get results from the other two games they can call that a positive start. United took a huge set forward reaching the Champions League last season, not many would have expected that in ten Hag’s first season. They finished the season with an average xG created of 1.9 which is impressive, but they leaked chances at the back with an average xG conceded of 1.4.
Compare that figure to the other sides in the Top Four – Manchester City 1.0, Arsenal 1.2 and Newcastle 1.2. Additionally, all those sides had better attacking stats too – they all had average xG’s created of over 2.0. United therefore had the worst stats in the Top Four, and they’ll come under pressure to hang onto that spot this season – especially if Liverpool improve from last season. Harry Maguire has lost the captaincy, and that’s definitely a sign he won’t be in the main starting XI this season – United looked better without him at the back last season, and he’s been left in no mans land for the time being as he fights for his place.
As I said above, United will be expected to win this game, and the market agrees. The home win is trading 1.39 at the time of writing and it’s hard to see past a comfortable United win here. Wolves were very poor last season, and they will likely be in another relegation battle this season. They seem “too good to go down” but you just know they are going to hang around the relegation battle before getting themselves out of trouble. Their stats from last season were very poor – they conceded an average xG of 1.7 but only created an average of 1.1. They definitely struggled in front of goal as they scored less than one goal per game.
You can fully understand why they are where they are in the relegation battle. For this game, you’d have to worry about Wolves away form last season too – they only managed 11 points away from home last season which put them in the bottom three on the away form table. United didn’t start the season on the front foot last season, but they can here. I like them to cover the 1.5 goal handicap at 2.01 which in my view should be odds on.
The Striker Says:
Three points win Manchester United -1.5 goals to beat Wolves at 2.01 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/MunWlv
FACTMAN MATCH STATS
● Manchester United have lost just one of their last 12 home league games against Wolves (W8 D3), going down 1-0 in January 2022.
● Having been unbeaten in their first four Premier League meetings with Man Utd following their return to the division in 2018 (W1 D3), Wolves have now lost five of their last six against the Red Devils.
● No team has won their opening Premier League game more often than Manchester United (20), though the Red Devils have lost on MD1 in two of the last three seasons. They lost at home to Brighton in their first game last season, last losing their opening league game in consecutive campaigns since 1972-73/1973-74.
● Wolves have lost their opening league game in each of the last two seasons, last doing so in three consecutive campaigns between 1988-89 and 1990-91.
