5 users online

MST

MATCH PREVIEW ~ Fulham welcome Manchester United ~ Prem MD 02 ~ 25/26

last updated Friday 22nd August 2025, 3:04 PM



Match Preview

Fulham vrs Manchester United

Premiership Match Day 02 25/26 at Craven Cottage

Sunday 24th August 2025    KO: 16:30

Referee: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire)

Live on Sky



Fulham manager Marco Silva
Fulham manager
Marco Silva
Other
Marco Silva
Stories
His Wiki page
Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim
Manchester United Coach
Ruben Amorim
His Wiki page
Fulham welcome Manchester United for a fascinating gameweek two contest with two Portuguese Premier League bosses going head to head.

While Marco Silva's men left it astonishingly late to salvage a 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend, there was no such reprieve for Ruben Amorim's men in a 1-0 loss to Arsenal.

Fulham have many wrongs to right at home, where they are on a sequence of three consecutive top-flight defeats.

Chelsea, Everton and Manchester City all prevailed at Craven Cottage in the second half of last season, putting head coach Silva at risk of an unwanted first; he has never lost four straight league home matches in his entire managerial career, for Fulham or any other team.

The Cottagers were on the cusp of starting their 2025-26 season on the back foot too, as Matt O'Riley's penalty was ostensibly enough to propel Brighton to a slender win on the South Coast, only for Rodrigo Muniz to produce a last-gasp leveller as transfer speculation continued to swirl.

Silva has now expressed confidence that the frontman will stay at Craven Cottage, where Fulham can draw inspiration from their FA Cup penalty-shootout success over Man United in March, but it is a different story as far as the top flight is concerned.

Lisandro Martinez was the hero in a 1-0 victory for the Red Devils in this exact fixture last season, as Man United made it eight wins on the bounce away to Fulham in the Premier League, and the Red Devils could now achieve nine straight away league victories against a single opponent for the first time ever.

Almost every Man United defeat in the 2024-25 season - a record-breaking year for all the wrong reasons - brought a sense of doom and gloom, but last Sunday's agonising reverse to Arsenal should have instead provoked a sense of optimism for the months ahead.

Riccardo Calafiori was the beneficiary of Altay Bayindir's goalkeeping gaffe to head home the winning goal, as Man United fell victim to Arsenal's set-piece mastery yet again, but on the balance of play, one cannot claim that the Gunners were full value for all three points.

Summer signings Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha consistently carried the threat to the Arsenal backline, but a combination of wasteful finishing and a man-of-the-match performance from David Raya proved to be the Red Devils' undoing, as Amorim suffered a 15th Premier League loss from 28 games since taking charge.

To put that number into even greater context, the Portuguese lost just 14 of his 167 Primeira Liga matches while in charge of Sporting Lisbon, although his side suffering back-to-back defeats on Sunday may not be the harbinger of doom some might feel it would be.

Indeed, Man United have only ever lost their opening two games of a Premier League season twice; firstly in the inaugural 1992-93 edition - when they wound up as champions - and then again in the 2022-23 campaign, when Erik ten Hag led them to a third-placed finish and an EFL Cup triumph.

However, a run of four losses and a draw from their last five Premier League away games hardly stands Man United in good stead



Head to Head

  • Fulham have won just one of their last 19 Premier League games against Manchester United (D3 L15), beating them 2-1 at Old Trafford in February 2024.


  • Manchester United have won each of their last eight Premier League away games against Fulham – they’ve never won nine in a row against an opponent in their league history.


  • Manchester United have won just three of their last 23 Premier League away games against London sides (D5 L15), though all three of these victories have come against Fulham.


  • The last four Premier League meetings between Fulham and Man Utd have seen a winning goal scored in the 78th minute or later, with all six goals in games between the teams in the last two seasons coming in the second half. It was one of only two fixtures played four times across 2023-24 and 2024-25 without a first half goal, along with Everton vs West Ham.
Fulham
  • Fulham ended 2024-25 on a run of three consecutive home Premier League defeats, last losing more in a row when they lost their final six home games in 2020-21. Manager Marco Silva has never previously lost four consecutive league games in his entire managerial career.


  • Fulham manager Marco Silva has lost seven of his 10 Premier League matches against Manchester United (W2 D1), only losing more against Manchester City (12). On home soil he’s lost four out of five against the Red Devils, with the other a 4-0 win as Everton boss in April 2019.


  • None of Rodrigo Muniz’s first nine Premier League goals for Fulham were as a sub but seven of his last nine have come from the bench; the most of any player since the start of last season. He equalised in the 97th minute of their 1-1 draw with Brighton on MD1.
Manchester United
  • Ruben Amorim has suffered 15 Premier League defeats in just 28 games as Man Utd manager (W7 D6), with Spurs the only current side who’ve lost more games than the Red Devils since Amorim’s first game in charge (17). It also means that Amorim has already lost more games in the Premier League than he did in 167 matches in the Portuguese Primeira Liga (W130 D23 L14).


  • Manchester United lost their opening Premier League game of the season against Arsenal – the only seasons where they’ve lost their first two games are 1992-93 (eventually finished 1st) and 2022-23 (came 3rd).


  • Bruno Fernandes created five chances for Man Utd in their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, the 33rd time he’s done so in a Premier League match – the most of any player since his debut in February 2020. It’s also the second most by a Man Utd player on record (2003-04 onwards), with Ryan Giggs doing so 34 times in that time.









`








`
Source Ben Knapton at SportsMole/BBCSports
Since 1998
"It's been updated!"