Wolves v Manchester United: Mbuemo and Cunha fancied to star in Molineux victory | OneFootball

Wolves v Manchester UnitedMonday, 20:00Live on Sky Sports

Woeful Wolves look done and dusted

Wolves are rock bottom of the table with just two points accumulated from 42 available, no team in any top flight season has had fewer after 14 games. They've scored just seven goals - that's an average of just 0.5 goals per game - which is exactly half the total of the second lowest goalscorers (Nottingham Forest, 14 goals) going into Matchday 15.

The club sacked manager Vitor Pereira at the start of November and replaced him with highflying Middlesbrough manager Rob Edwards, who had previously played for and had various coaching roles with the West Midlands club. Under Edwards Wolves have played three, lost three and failed to score a single goal!

To be fair, Wolves played well in a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa, but as many people will testify, it appears to be a lot easier for players to raise their levels against a fierce derby rival. A game later, in midweek at home to Nottingham Forest, Wolves were dreadful in a performance that angered their new boss.

Following Monday night's game at home to Manchester United, Wolves then face three away games in four matches, against Arsenal, Liverpool and United again. They look certain to be bottom of the table at Christmas, and they'll probably have a significant amount of points fewer than West Brom had (10pts) in the 2004/05 season, who remain the only team to survive in a 20-team league after being bottom at Christmas.

It's no surprise then to see Wolves trading at an un-backable price - 1/500 if you're interested - in the Relegation market.

Performances a concern for United

Manchester United are the visitors to Molineux on Monday night and it's fair to say they're not having a great time of things either, especially not in recent weeks.

United have won just one of their last five Premier League matches, that being a come-from-behind win against a Crystal Palace team who looked legless in the second half last Sunday following an away game in Europe a few days earlier.

But it's the recent performances of Ruben Amorim's men that are extremely worrying. At home to 10-men Everton they were toothless in a 1-0 defeat. For 45 minutes against Crystal Palace they were all over the place and really should have gone into the interval two or three goals down. And at home to struggling West Ham in midweek they once again looked devoid of ideas and unable to create chances against a team currently in the relegation zone.

But performances don't win you points, goals do. And in the case of United they've been scoring plenty of late on the road. Amorim's men scored exactly two goals in each of their last four away games, including two at Liverpool and two at Tottenham. They also scored two against a decent Chelsea team and four at home to Brighton recently, so unlike Wolves, at least we know United have goals in them.

A win on Monday night will move United up from 12th to sixth, just one point behind Crystal Palace who sit fourth in the table; they can be backed at 7/2 to record a Top 4 Finish this season.

Away win the obvious call

In the Match Odds market, Manchester United can be backed at 7/10, and against a team that are yet to win a league game this season, a team that has failed to score a single goal since October, that appears perfectly fair.

The one concern is United's performances of late, but in Wolves they face the worst team in the Premier League who will be without one of their best players, Joao Gomes. And when you consider the hosts have lost eight consecutive games in all competitions and that United, regardless of how they've performed, have scored two goals in each of their last four away games, then an away win has to be the call.

If you disagree, then Wolves can be backed at 4/1 with the Draw available at 3/1.

Below you can see a chart showing the percentage chance for each outcome using the Betfair Exchange Match Odds market.

Bank on Mbuemo and Cunha

I will include the United away win in a Bet Builder for Monday night's game, and I'm also going to wager that they keep up their streak of scoring at least two goals on the road by backing a couple of popular players based on recent trends.

Bryan Mbeumo has either scored (3) or assisted (2) a goal in five of his six Premier League appearances against Wolves, and with Benjamin Sesko still out injured he's likely to be one of United main goalscoring threats.

The same can be said for former Wolves' star man Matheus Cunha who left Molineux with an excellent recent record at the stadium. Cunha had 11 goal involvements (6 goals, 5 assists) in his last 12 Premier League appearance for Wolves at their famous old ground and he'll be relishing returning to Molineux in a United shirt.

Backing both Mbuemo or Cunha to score or assist in addition to the away win pays out at around 11/4. And of course, we don't need United to score at least two goals for the bet to land if Mbuemo assists a Cunha goal or vice versa. And remember, should either of the players be taken off without scoring or assisting then the bet rolls on to the substitute replacing them thanks to Safe Sub.

The picks of the Opta-stats based bets

Bet #1 - Back another Wolves defeat without scoring

The Stat

Wolves have lost each of their last seven Premier League games, failing to score in each of the last five. In their league history, they've only lost eight in a row once (December 1981 to February 1982), while this is their longest run of defeats without a goal.

The Bet

Bet #2 - Back former Wolves man to make Molineux impact

The Stat

Man Utd's Matheus Cunha has been involved in 11 goals in his last 12 Premier League appearances at Molineux (6 goals, 5 assists), scoring and assisting a goal in this exact fixture for Wolves last season.

The Bet