The Red Devils are looking to make it 6 points from 6 when the Cherries travel to Old Trafford. Ruben Amorim will seek to continue the momentum from their best performance of the season after a 4-1 win over the might Wolves.
Another Monday night fixture means United will know exactly where they stand in the table which could add more of an incentive to a game that will already have a lot riding on it.
Can we get two wins on the bounce?
Predicted Lineup
Amorim did deliver some damning team news as both of Maguire and De Ligt remain unavailable and while Sesko is pretty much on schedule to return on Monday, he picked up some food poisoning that could keep him out.
On top of that, the manager remains unsure as to whether his African trio of Mazraoui, Amad and Mbeumo will be allowed to feature in this game before jetting off to the AFCON.
If not, then we could have a real problem 😬.
As per my predicted XI though, you can see that I have included them (I have a feeling they'll be allowed to play).
Heaven to stay as central centre-back in the absence of others, although Yoro could come in. However, after a good performance at Wolves and the manager not favouring the Frenchman at the moment, I believe he'll stick to Heaven.
Could Martinez make his first start? There is a chance but as Shaw is playing well, I doubt Amorim will drop him. I don't think the butcher can play anywhere else in the back line other than LCB so he will be on the bench.
The front three will be interesting.
Mbeumo scored and has been our best player besides, so can't be dropped; Mount is playing well, scored at Wolves too and we saw the record with him in the team vs without (71% win ratio with him vs 25% without [Sky Sports Premier League]. He will play. The question mark is Cunha.
The Brazilian hasn't been at his best this season and if someone was going to be benched, it would have to be him. On the other hand, I don't feel Amorim is a big fan of Zirkzee's and has only been playing him because of injuries.
That's why I've stuck with the no 10.
Approach
United have had a problem all season with conceding. Despite the use of three/five defenders, we've let in 22 goals which at the point of writing this, is the second-highest in the top 10.
We've kept just the one clean sheet and even against a Wolves side who hadn't scored in their previous five matches, managed to put one passed Lammens.
Utterly embarrassing indeed.
Bournemouth are a side who've actually scored more goals than Arsenal on the road as their 11 is only bettered by a handful of teams.
But why I predicted that team is mainly because of the front line.
The Fantastic Four is what I'm going to call them.
Without a recognized striker, Amorim used all of his attacking midfielders in the win over Wolves. What I liked about this quartet is that unlike in other matches, there was no one player playing as the false 9.
All of Cunha, Mbeumo, Mount and even skipper Bruno were interchanging with each other to a point where Wolves didn't know what to do. This gave us more of an advantage.
All four players also bring something different as each has their own attributes. All were also involved with the 4 goals as Bruno got a brace and an assist, Mbeumo and Mount both scored and Cunha assisted the captain for the opener.
Mount has been important in our good results so if he is a sort of 'lucky charm', why not keep him in the side? What he also does well is drop into midfield allowing the magnifico to move further forward and influence the attack.
This is something that has happened in the last two game as the Portuguese has pushed higher up the field. His average positioning would suggest so.
Check this post out on Bruno's recent positioning.
We've also seen a better version of him.
I believe that the manager would want to stick to these four for these reasons and look to get at a Bournemouth defense that has conceded 19 away from home, the second-most in the league.
Form
United's defeat to Everton is our only loss in the last nine. That does sound great but the flip side to that is that we've won just two of our last six.
All of this means we moved up to 6th in the table after beating Wolves 4-1 with those goals making us the third-highest scores behind Arsenal and City (as of writing this post).
We were level on points with Chelsea and just 1 point behind Palace in 4th spot before this weekend's fixtures. What a difference taking advantage of others' failures makes.
The disappointing thing is that our home form has taken a massive hit thanks to the loss and draw in our last two matches at Old Trafford.
We now sit 11th in the home table with 13 points from seven matches.
The Cherries on the other hand, are in a dismal 15th in the away table with just the solitary victory on their travels. They also have two draws and four losses giving them a total of 5 points.
The recent record is not in our favour, as has been the case with a lot of teams we've faced in the last few matches.
United have failed to win in their last four meetings with the Cherries with Bournemouth getting back-to-back 3-0 victories on their last two visits to the Theatre.
Good lord, losing 3-0 twice in a row to Bournemouth at home is bloody awful 😩.
That could give them an incentive.
Bournemouth
Very contrasting season for Andoni Iraola and co. After a start that felt like they could be the next Leicester, the last few games has made them appear more like Wolves.
After the opening day defeat to Liverpool, the Cherries went on an eight-game unbeaten run that saw them beat the likes of Spurs and Brighton whilst picking up impressive draws against Newcastle and Palace. They also managed to keep four clean sheets in this time.
This saw them sit 3rd with 15 points, just 4 behind leaders Arsenal.
Since then though, the following six matches have been unkind.
Bournemouth have failed to pick up a win in any of them and suffered heavy losses to City (3-1) and Villa (4-0) which is where this bad run began. Two further defeats and two draws followed.
This has now dropped them into 13th.
As mentioned, they have a problem with conceding goals as the 24 they've let in is only worsened by the bottom five.
United and Bournemouth do average around the same possession (56% for United, 52% to the Cherries) but at Old Trafford, MUFC do increase that to 56% while Bournemouth's drops below 50% (48.8%).
This could give us an indication of how the game is going to go although Iraola does prefer his team to play with possession and a high line.
Some advice would be to abandon this approach for this one game and go all defensive. United hate that and as we've seen, struggle to pick up points against the lower teams because of this style of play. Use a high line though, and you're asking for trouble.
The Cherries do have a few good players most notably Antoine Semeyo who like his club, was on fire earlier in the campaign. Much like Bournemouth though, his form has fallen off a cliff as well. He has been stuck on 6 goals for a while as United's Mbeumo has now caught up with him.
Perhaps the form of the forward is the reason as to why they've found themselves in the position they're in. The reliance on Semenyo has ben tenfold.
Tyler Adams is another player who can cause us trouble. It's no coincidence that United have been linked to these two players as they have the quality that any top club would desire, as Amorim said in his presser.
We do have to be very careful.
Prediction
United have this ability to suck you in and make you feel positive after a win. Regardless of how we play and who it's against, pick up the 3 points and we feel we're going to win the league 😅.
While that may be farfetched, I'm pretty confident to say that I believe we will get the win against the Cherries. I'm going for 2-1 as we don't know how to keep a clean sheet.
I think it will be tight and somewhat nervy all game but we'll manage to get the job done in the end.
The late Monday night kick-off. Old Trafford. United take on Bournemouth. What are our predictions?
Diogo Dalot | Creator: Stu Forster | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2025 Getty Images Man Utd News
Old Trafford | Photo by James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images United In Focus
Antoine Semenyo | Image via Bournemouth official X (@afcbournemouth)