Manchester United v Southampton Betting Tips: United to prove too strong at Wembley

Sunday sees Manchester United and Southampton travel to Wembley for the first major cup final of the season as they fight it out for the EFL League Cup title.

Manchester United are in good form going into this match after a run of five straight wins and no defeats in seven in all competitions. Mourinho has always given the League Cup a lot of respect and, despite fielding a strong side against Saint-Etienne in the Europa League on Thursday, you can pretty much guarantee he will go full strength again here. Although they are missing a couple of key players.

Jose Mourinho has got his side incredibly well organised and they have one of the best defences in the league with just 21 goals conceded in 25 games. These impressive displays at the back show no sign of tailing off any time soon as the Red Devils have conceded just one goal in their last seven matches in all competitions. Also, with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and others in the attacking third, United will always pose a goal threat.

United have already experienced success at Wembley this season thanks to their Community Shield win over Premier League champions Leicester City before the start of the campaign. Additionally, their big game experience should come in handy on Sunday afternoon.

Whilst Manchester United have had a bit of a fixture pile-up going into this final, Southampton will be well rested having not played in the last fortnight. This could certainly go one of two ways – they will either have lost their rhythm or they will be well rested and raring to go. The Saints players will still be fairly confident going into this cup final as their last result saw them batter Sunderland 4-0 in the Premier League.

Southampton are certainly a team that prioritises defence over attack and their record of 31 conceded in 25 matches is pretty decent whilst they have also kept nine clean sheets in the Premier League – the fourth most of the 20 teams. They do have a bit of firepower going forward in the likes of Shane Long and Manolo Gabbiadini, however, whether this will be enough to hurt a solid United back-line is another issue.

Claude Puel’s side have not played a major final at the new Wembley and so nerves could hit them in comparison to a United side who are used to cup finals. However, they will take encouragement from the fact that shocks have happened in the past.

Neither of these sides are particularly high scoring so I doubt we’ll see an end-to-end goal glut here. Having said that, I expect United to come out on top and, with their superior quality, score a couple to put Southampton to the sword in what should be a rather routine win. ‘Manchester United to Win Over 1.5 Goals’ and ‘2-3 Total Goals’ are two bets that stand out.

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