16/12/2015 17:14, Report by James Tuck
10 FACTS: MANCHESTER UNITED V NORWICH CITY
Ahead of Manchester United’s Barclays Premier League encounter with Norwich City at Old Trafford on Saturday, here are 10 facts and stats about the fixture…
1. United have won the last three home encounters with Norwich by a 4-0 scoreline (Premier League in March 2013, League Cup in October 2013 and Premier League in April 2014). Those are the only three occasions the Reds have hit exactly four goals against the Canaries.
2. In the first of those games, Japanese playmaker Shinji Kagawa became the first Asian player to net a hat-trick in the Premier League. Wayne Rooney completed the scoring with a long-range strike that was later voted United’s Goal of the Month.
3. Steve Bruce, who signed for United on this day (17 December) in 1987, is perhaps the most well-known player to have appeared for both clubs, having spent three seasons at Carrow Road before moving to Old Trafford.
4. Eleven other men have played a competitive game for both United and Norwich: Robbie Brady (who could face United on Saturday), Luke Chadwick, Ron Davies, Ritchie De Laet, Dion Dublin, David Healy, Ted MacDougall, Phil Mulryne, Alex Notman, Mike Phelan and Mark Robins.
5. Dublin, who scored the Reds’ first winning goal in the Premier League, a last-minute effort at Southampton in August 1992, began and ended his professional career with Norwich. The striker was released by the Canaries in 1988 before he’d made a first-team appearance but returned for a two-season spell between 2006 and 2008.
6. Bryan Robson netted the final league goal of his distinguished United career away at Norwich on the opening day of the 1993/94 season. Captain Marvel had also scored the Reds’ final goal of the previous season, away at Wimbledon, as the Reds celebrated a maiden Premier League title success.
7. On 12 December 1992, Norwich were seven points clear at the top of the first Premier League table, having won their last four matches, when they came to Old Trafford. Alex Ferguson’s fifth-placed side needed a result – and got it, thanks to Mark Hughes’ winner on the hour mark. The Reds went on to lift the trophy, while Norwich finished third.
8. United’s first league encounter with Norwich resulted in a 5-0 win at Old Trafford in September 1934, in the old Division Two. The Reds’ line-up that day was notable for containing both a Tom Jones and a Tommy Jones, with the latter getting on the scoresheet.
9. The sides did not meet in the top flight until December 1972, when the Reds triumphed 2-0 at Carrow Road, with Scottish forward MacDougall finding the net against the club he’d go on to join in 1973. Both teams were relegated at the end of 1973/74 and, the following season, MacDougall hit four goals in as many games against his former employers.
10. The Reds’ highest Premier League scorer against Norwich is Ryan Giggs (four goals in 10 appearances), while the Canaries were the visitors when United won 4-0 in Giggs’s first match as caretaker manager in April last year.
Resouce by manutd.com