Manchester United will be aiming to prevent Fulham from winning successive away league games against them for the first time in history when the two teams lock horns at Old Trafford on Friday night.
The 2024-25 Premier League campaign officially gets underway in Manchester, with the 20-time English champions welcoming Marco Silva's side.
Fulham recorded a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford last season, with Alex Iwobi netting the game's winning goal in the seventh minute of added time at the end of the 90.
The Cottagers are now looking to make it consecutive away league wins over Man United for the first time in history.
Man United will bring a strong record against Fulham into the contest, though, losing just four of their 34 Premier League meetings, recording 24 wins in the process.
© Reuters
Man United have a strong Premier League record vs. Fulham
The Red Devils have won their opening top-flight fixture a record 21 times, and this will be the eighth straight campaign that they begin their Premier League season at Old Trafford.
Last season, Man United lost nine times in front of their own supporters in all competitions, representing their joint-worst season in terms of home defeats.
Man United had been on a four-game winning run against Fulham before the setback last season, including a 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage.
The 2-1 reverse at Old Trafford was the first time that Man United had lost to Fulham in the league since December 2009, when they were beaten 3-0 in London.
© Imago
Ten Hag has "very high expectations" for new season
The 20-time English champions finished eighth in the Premier League last term, which represented their worst performance in the current format, but head coach Erik Ten Hag has said that he has "very high expectations" for the new season.
"We are complete and we are now working together for, let's say, 10 days and always that will take a while. But more teams will have this problem. In the start of the season, don't drop points, work hard, make sure you are well organised in and out of possession - that gives you the best chance," he said during his pre-match press conference.
"But we will not [be] 100%, 100% form. But we have to go from game to game to improve, to get higher performance levels in the team and individual players, and we will see how quick we can go into this process.
"Not so different but we know our targets, we know we are in the right direction, we know we have won two trophies and we know our game model. So, now we have to integrate the new players where we think they can improve the game model, improve the team levels and we take it from there. I always have very high expectations but we want to go for trophies."
Ten Hag has confirmed that new signings Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui will be in the squad against Fulham, while Joshua Zirkzee is also in line to make his debut.
Matt Law
