LeeDixon

Match Odds/Half-Time Full-Time

There were serious repercussions from that 6-1 hammering Manchester United suffered at the hands of rivals City.

One of them was that Sir Alex Ferguson decided to scrap his somewhat gung-ho approach that was a feature of his team in the first few weeks of the campaign. The same approach that saw them beat City 3-2 in the Community Shield, thrash Arsenal 8-2 and get the better of Chelsea (3-1).

So it's back to basics for the time being as far as Sir Alex is concerned. A fairly conventional 4-4-2 with players being asked to be more disciplined in terms of positioning. And a middle four that has somewhat surprisingly included the presence of Wayne Rooney. It's an interesting role to give your most likely goalscorer but there's sound reasoning behind it, as you would expect from the United boss. He obviously feels that scoring goals isn't a problem for a team containing the likes of Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck and Nani and that employing Rooney in a deeper role gives him extra steel, energy, skill and all the other assets we associate with his number 10. It's certainly worked to an extent because, while United have scored just two goals in their last two league matches, they've also kept two clean sheets.

Swansea have surprised many, especially with their resolute defending at home. But Manchester United should be too strong for them and the Reds will be able to rack up another hard-fought win. The 1.56 is a decent price on the straight win but the Draw/Man Utd option at 5.0 looks good, too. Sometimes it takes fatigue to set in before you finally score against a team like Swansea and the breakthrough may only come late on.

Over/Under 2.5 Goals

I've discussed the fact that United's last two matches were 1-0 wins and they were sandwiched between a 2-0 win against Otelul Galati in the Champions League. So there's clearly a recent pattern for low-scoring matches.

Swansea have conceded just one goal on home soil this season, fewer than any other Premier League team on their own ground. That's an incredible Opta stat and though I've said I fancy United to win the match, it may take just the one goal to do so. Under 2.5 goals is a good bet at 2.08.

First Goalscorer

Part of the reason why Wayne Rooney has been moved into a deeper role has to do with the faith Sir Alex has in Javier Hernandez. "If you build it they will come" was the tagline in Kevin Costner's "Field of Dreams". "Supply him with chances and the goals will come" could be a similarly appropriate phrase to describe Hernandez's prowess in front of goal. He hasn't played as much this season as some would have thought for one reason or another but when he has he's often been the difference. Back him at 5.0 to open the scoring.

2 pts Back Manchester United to win @ 1.56
2 pts Back Draw/Man Utd @ 5.0
3 pts Back Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.08
2 pts Back Javier Hernandez to be first goalscorer @ 5.0

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