Football / Bunker Nuggets

Fixture History

·         Man Utd have won eight times at Boro in 13 visits with Boro only managing two wins

·         Boro have actually won more times at Old Trafford against Man Utd than they have at home, three to two

·         Overall in the series Man Utd lead 15 wins, Boro have five and seven have been drawn

·         United are unbeaten in the last six PL matches against Boro

·         Boro’s last win was a memorable 4-1 win back in October 2005, when the Boro scorers that day were the impressive trio of Mendieta, Hasselbaink and Yakubu, those were the days!

·         Only three Boro players remain from that match, Chris Riggott, Matthew Bates and Emanuel Pogatetz

·         Last season the match at the Riverside ended 2-2 with Wayne Rooney getting a 74^th minute equaliser

 

Current Season

·         United go into the game looking for a fifth straight PL win since their defeat at Fulham back on the 21^st March 

·         Boro have won just one of their last five, 3-1 at home to Hull City

·         United have scored more than twice the number of goals than Boro, 61 to 25 and have conceded over half as few, 23 to 49

·         14 of United’s wins this season have been by a single goal

·         Boro have lost eight times this season by a single goal 

·         In 26 of United’s 33 PL matches this season they have taken the lead compared to 13 times by Boro in 34 PL matches

·         17 times Boro have conceded the first goal and never comeback to win in fact they have lost 14 of them and just three times managed to salvage a draw

·         Boro have had four 0-0 draws at home this season including three in their last six matches

·         United have scored eight times in the opening 15 minutes of PL matches this season which is the most whilst Boro have managed just two goals in this period

·         United have only conceded two goals in the opening 15 minutes of matches this season which is the joint best record in the PL compared to eight by Boro

·         In the last ten minutes of matches United have the best defensive record with just two goals conceded, two fewer than the next best whilst Boro have conceded 12 in this period

 

Middlesbrough

·         Stewart Downing is Boro’s only ever present starting all 34 PL matches and only being replaced in one of them but has yet to find the net

·         Tuncay is there top scorer with 6 goals in 29 appearances with three of them coming at the Riverside and three times he has been the last scorer in a match

·         Gary O’Neil is Boro’s most booked player with seven yellow cards and four of them have come at the Riverside   

·         Marlon King has been the last scorer in two of Boro’s last three home matches 

·         In seven previous matches against the Big 4 this season Boro have one win and a draw to go with five defeats, the win was an impressive 2-0 victory over Liverpool and the draw was 1-1 against the Gunners

 

Manchester United

·         Edwin van der Saar has started the most PL matches for United this season, 30 out of 33 whilst Nemanja Vidic with 29 has the most for an outfield player, one more than Christiano Ronaldo

·         Ronaldo is the leading scorer in the PL for United with 17 five more than Wayne Rooney 

·         Although only starting 12 PL matches Ryan Giggs has come off the bench in 12 more and made the most appearances for the club from the bench this season

·         Only two of Ronaldo’s 17 PL goals this season have come away from Old Trafford

·         United’s top scorer on the road this season in the PL is Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov with three each

·         United have won nine of their 16 matches on the road this season, drawing four more and losing just three times, at Fulham, Arsenal and Liverpool 

·         United have been involved in two 0-0 draws this season and both have been on the road at Spurs and Aston Villa

·         Wayne Rooney is United’s most booked player in the PL this season with eight yellow card with four of them coming on the road and seven in the second half of matches 

Also booked four times on the road this season are defender Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic