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Ex-Red Steve Coppell and his men come to OT for the season opener. The manager does have some injury concerns of his own: striker Leroy Lita, defender Ibrahima Sonko and wingers Glen Little and Bobby Convey are out with injuries. Reading will certainly be faced with a rather testing season compared to last year where they proved to be the surprise package. The Royals ran us close last season, when we drew with them away. They might be missing players like Sidwell, but expect Coppell to inject some pluck among the players, who will be up for it tomorrow.
Sir Alex has confirmed that Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves will feature in the squad with Tevez likely to make his debut on derby day. Otherwise he’ll most likely go with the tried and tested lineup of last season: Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs certain to start upfront. Fletcher might play on the right wing – it remains to be seen if SAF would actually be brave enough to plunge Nani in straightaway. He won’t do that, but Nani would certainly come onto the pitch at some point. Scholes’ early return should see him start alongside Carrick and Brown, Vidic, Rio and Evra will take their customary positions in defence. Neville, despite his return to training, would take a while before he returns to first team action.
Squads:
Manchester United (from): EVDS, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Darren Fletcher, Tomasz Kuszczak, Nani, Owen Hargreaves, Anderson, Mikael Silvestre, John O’Shea, Jonathan Evans, Gerard Pique, Chris Eagles, Phil Bardsley, Danny Simpson, Carlos Tevez.
Match Prediction: 2-0 to United.

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