Second-placed Manchester United will be hoping to trim runaway leaders Manchester City’s lead when they host struggling Southampton side at Old Trafford on Saturday and both teams’ managers have provided injury updates ahead of their Premier League clash of the year.

Manchester United

The Red Devils trail City by a massive 15 points and the fact that they have drawn their last two games with an identical scoreline (2-2) has further dampened the mood around Old Trafford.

Jose Mourinho started Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku together for the first time in mid-week against Burnley but the experiment backfired as United found themselves 2-0 down at half-time.

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Ibrahimovic was hooked at the interval and Mourinho admitted in his pre-match press conference on Friday that both strikers were not 100 per cent fit and it’s unlikely that he will start both again in the near future.

And, despite Lukaku starting 20 Premier League games in a row, Mourinho insisted that the Belgian was not going to get rested anytime soon either.

Chris Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Anthony Martial and Antonio Valencia are all unavailable for Saturday’s clash at Old Trafford after suffering knocks, while Michael Carrick (heart), Marouane Fellaini (knee) and Eric Bailly (groin) are long-term absentees.

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Henrikh Mkhitaryan was brought in from the cold by Mourinho at half-time but the Armenian wasn’t exactly impressive and may have to settle for a place on the bench.


Probable lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): David de Gea, Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof, Ashley Young, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku

Southampton

Southampton, who are 14th in the league table, are on a dreadful run at the moment, winless in their last five games and having been mauled 5-2 by Tottenham Hotspur in mid-week.

Their fans will be fearful of a similar scoreline when the travel to Manchester, for fullbacks Ryan Bertrand and Cedric Soares are still unavailable after suffering hamstring injuries while central defender Virgil van Djik has departed for Liverpool.

Star striker Charlie Austin, who injured his hamstring, is serving a three-match suspension to leave them a little short of attacking options ahead of their visit to Old Trafford.

Manolo Gabbiadini didn’t start in mid-week, but with a game against Crystal Palace on January 1 coming up, Manager Manuel Pellegrino may be tempted to start the Italian forward in place of Shane Long.

Sofiane Boufal netted in the 5-2 defeat and considering the fact that the Saints have been goal-shy this season, Pellegrino could keep the mercurial winger in the starting XI as well.

Probable lineup (4-5-1 formation): Fraser Forster, Wesley Hoedt, Maya Yoshida, Matt Targett, Jack Stephens, James Ward-Prowse, Oriol Romeu, Mario Lemina, Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond and Manolo Gabbiadini.

Match starts at 1500 GMT/20.30 IST.

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