Northampton Town v Manchester United Betting Tips

Nobody would argue if you said that this match was going to be a walk over for Manchester United. However, the Red Devils have lost three on the spin and so Northampton may be quietly confident that they can take advantage of United’s poor form.

Newly-promoted Northampton had got their League One campaign off to a rather boring start by drawing their first five matches. However, things picked up after that and they won two in a row before losing against Chesterfield last time out – their first league defeat of the season.

Just like in their promotion campaign last year, the Cobblers are excellent at the back and have one of the best defensive records in the division. It is goals that have been the problem for Chris Wilder’s side, although that now seems to be changing as they have scored in their last four league games.

Unfortunately for Northampton, this fantastic match against Manchester United has been somewhat overshadowed by corruption allegations off the pitch. It has recently emerged that firm ‘1st Land Ltd’, which had been given millions of pounds to oversee the rebuilding of Sixfields Stadium, have instead spent large amounts of that money on tickets and hospitality at Tottenham Hotspur. Owner Howard Grossman and his son Hayden have been pictured jetting around with VIPs and players such as Sandro. That money could really have helped a club with a poor financial history such as Northampton Town but has instead been used on greed – supposedly.

Jose Mourinho had got off to the perfect start in his role as Manchester United manager, however, the aforementioned three defeats in a row have left some people questioning the Portuguese coach’s decisions.

Whilst the first of those two defeats are slightly understandable given the circumstances and opposition in each match, their latest loss at Watford has left United fans seething.

As per usual the scapegoat is Wayne Rooney and many have said that Mourinho must be braver and drop his (and England’s) captain. I think we may find Rooney is “rested” for this week’s League Cup match but we can expect him to once again take the field against Leicester City at the weekend.

We saw a weakened team in United’s Europa League match away at Feyenoord and they were not too bad. The Dutch side are high on confidence though and this helped them over the line.

Although people will say United should play a strong team to ensure a win on Wednesday, given their recent losses, I would imagine it will still be a ‘weakened’ team at Sixfields but one that should still easily come away with victory.

It seems like light years ago that Anthony Martial burst onto the English Premier League scene at the start of last season to score a fantastic winner against rivals Liverpool. Since then much has been expected of the Frenchman but he has largely failed to deliver.

The 20-year-old seems to have lost his way and I imagine Jose Mourinho will give the France international a chance to regain his confidence on Wednesday night against Northampton – despite suffering concussion against Watford last time out.

I think Martial to score anytime at 19/10 is certainly worth looking at as he should breeze passed the League One defenders of Northampton and have a good number of goal-scoring opportunities – despite the Cobblers’ good defensive record.

Furthermore I would also back United to win to nil at 5/4. Although they have been poor at the back recently, the Red Devils should be able to stem a tepid Northampton attack.

See more tips from Thomas here.