5 bold Premier League predictions: Kane wins north London derby for Spurs

1. Rashford, United silence critics with win at Southampton

Marcus Rashford and Manchester United didn’t have a great night on Tuesday when they played Young Boys at home in the Champions League. Rashford missed some good chances and the rest of his team weren’t too great either as they scraped to a 1-0 win over their Swiss opponents.

The young England striker was heavily criticized in the aftermath of the match — particularly because Jose Mourinho was seen turning to the crowd and shaking his head after one of Rashford’s misses.

This gesture from Mourinho seemed more in frustration with his team’s current inability to score goals rather than annoyance at Rashford. However, it’s been scrutinized and now the young striker has come under more fire than necessary.

Sometimes it seems that people forget he’s still quite young at just 21 years old. Rashford had an incredible first season in the first team which saw him rescue United on several occasions and for this reason it feels like fans and tv pundits expect the world from him.

He’s still learning and there’s no doubt that even in games like that — where he missed plenty of chances — he’s getting better. Hopefully Mourinho gives Rashford the opportunity to prove all his critics wrong at the weekend when United travel to face Southampton.

The Saints have really struggled this season and it’s quite miraculous that Mark Hughes still has a job considering how fickle managers’ contracts in this league really are. It will take something special from the south coast team to take any kind of points from this match, something special they don’t necessarily possess.

Southampton aren’t good enough defensively and even Manchester United will be able to exploit that. Rashford will bag a double in a comfortable win for United which will hopefully provide another fun post-match press conference from Jose Mourinho.