Manchester United will look to pick themselves up after sorry defeat to Watford when they welcome Newcastle to Old Trafford on Boxing Day.
After wins over Tottenham and Manchester City, United reverted to type against teams lower down the league, rescuing a draw at home to struggling Everton before that dismal defeat to the Premier League’s bottom club on Sunday.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side failed to truly capitalise on Chelsea’s recent struggles – which ended with an empathic win at Tottenham – and now find themselves seven points adrift of the top four.
Newcastle is the calibre of opponent United have struggled with this season and Steve Bruce’s side will head to Manchester having already scored a fairly convincing win over Solskjaer’s side at St James’ Park in October.
Premier League preview
Manchester United vs Newcastle
Venue: Old Trafford
Date: Wednesday, 26 December, 2019
Kick-off time: 5:30pm GMT, today
Match prediction: Man Utd 1-0 Newcastle
Dropping points again would be catastrophic for United but the return of Paul Pogba to pull the strings against teams sitting back offers hope.
Betting tips and odds via Betfair exchange
Match odds
- Man Utd to win: 4/11
- Draw: 9/2
- Newcastle to win: 9/1
| Scoreline | Man Utd win | Newcastle win | Draw |
| 1-0 | 7/1 | 26/1 | 0-0 (16/1) |
| 2-0 | 6/1 | 11/1 | 1-1 (10/1) |
| 2-1 | 17/2 | 28/1 | 2-2 (22/1) |
| 3-0 | 9/1 | 13/1 |
|
Odds provided by Betfair Exchange. Click here to place a bet. Odds correct as of December 19.
Tickets
For United ticket information click here to head to the club’s website.
Team news and predicted lineups
Pogba’s return has handed Solskjaer a major boost as he seeks a reaction from his side.
The Frenchman came on as a substitute in the 2-0 loss on Sunday to provide the only positive for Solskjaer on another day to forget.
“It’s a big plus,” said the Norwegian. “The boy has been working hard, he’s been desperate to play football and he came on and showed that hunger, urgency and quality so I’m sure we’ll benefit from him coming back.”
It’s not clear yet if Pogba is ready to play from the start when United host Newcastle at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, the club’s injury list is clearing at a crucial time for Solskjaer.
“We’ve got two games coming up over Christmas and we need to bounce back,” he said.
Possible United XI: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay, Fred; James, Lingard, Rashford; Martial
This will be the 169th meeting between these two sides with United winning 86 of those.
Head to head (H2H) results history
This will be the 169th meeting between these two sides with United winning 86 of those.
Newcastle have picked up 43 wins over the years with 39 draws between the two, and beat the Red Devils 1-0 at St James' Park in October.
TV channel/live stream details
Where to watch
Every single Premier League match in gameweek 19 will be shown live on Amazon Prime, while there will also be a dedicated goals centre for every goal from every game.
Existing and new Prime members can watch on devices using the Prime Video app, across mobile, Fire TV, games consoles, Virgin’s V6 TV Box, BT TV, TalkTalk TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, online and more - and Virgin will show select matches in 4K. Click here for more details.
Amazon Prime is available for £7.99 per month/£79 a year, but you can also watch any game for free this week if you start a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.
Fire TV Stick instructions
- Plug Fire TV Stick into an HDTV with a compatible HDMI port
- Plug the Fire TV power cable into a plug socket
- Connect the Fire TV Stick to the internet via on-screen instructions
- Open the Prime Video app and select Premier League
- Individual icons will allow you to click on your desired match
Highlights
Viewers will be able to watch full match replays from midnight following each match day.
Amazon will also prepare three-minute highlight packages which should be available an hour after full-time.
Pubs
Amazon have confirmed that pubs can stream every game on the BT Sport channel on Sky set top boxes - but try telling them to put Southampton vs Norwich City on when it's United vs Spurs at the same time...
X-Ray
Those of you who have been watching Prime will know about the X-Ray function. If you don't, it's an added bonus which will offer viewers more information while the games go on.
X-Ray will give fans live match stats via Opta and key highlights in case you miss anything.
We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to bias our coverage.
