Manchester United to hold firm in yet another Sunderland victory

As Sunderland aim to banish lingering relegation fears, there is likely no side they would less rather face than Manchester United.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s men are their next visitors to the Stadium of Light though, and look primed to extend their run without defeat against the Mackems to 22 league matches.

United are 3/5 to simply beat Sunderland, as they did in 16 of those 22 most recent Premier League bouts, but should prove value to win the match without conceding at 17/10.

Although the visitors haven’t been as strong at the back as we have grown accustomed to this season, they still possess the third-best defensive record in the top flight.

And a marked improvement has been noticeable across the Red Devils’ backline in their past few matches, with clean sheets emerging from their last five league games.

They triumphed in each of those bouts too, thus extending their lead at the pinnacle of the top flight to 15 points.

It is their record in recent matches opposing the Black Cats which should instill most confidence in punters backing an away win in which United fail to concede however.

Of the last 22 encounters of this pairing, the Reds have failed to be breached on 12 separate occasions, and went on to win 10 of the matches in which Sunderland didn’t score.

As Ferguson’s charges have recorded shutouts whilst triumphing in three of their last four meetings with the Mackems too, the strength of that recent trend is evident.

A look at Sunderland’s poor goalscoring record this season is further reason to back a United clean sheet, with Martin O’Neill’s men particularly blunt on their own patch.

Indeed, only three Premier League sides have scored less home goals this term, suggesting the Black Cats are ripe for the taking against the division’s top away scorers.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.