Webb appointment makes it hard to oppose Man Utd against Liverpool

Considering Manchester United have won nine of their 10 home games this season and Liverpool are yet to beat a team above them in the Premier League standings, 8/11 already looked a good price that the Red Devils would collect another three points on their march towards the title.

And the appointment of Howard Webb to referee the Old Trafford clash should only enhance the prospect of a Man Utd victory.

However, this is not because of Webb’s supposed bias towards Man Utd, with accusations sent in his direction previously that he is a closet Red Devils fan.

Instead, it is because Man Utd have won 15 of the 17 games that Webb has refereed at Old Trafford, including all of the last 11.

This run also features two successes over Liverpool and it was the most recent of these in the FA Cup third round almost two years ago to the day that drew the most headlines.

After awarding Man Utd a penalty inside 30 seconds after a dramatic fall by Dimitar Berbatov, he then sent Steven Gerrard in the first half.

This led to Ryan Babel getting fined for tweeting an edited image of Webb wearing a Man Utd shirt, while earlier in his career, Webb gave Sir Alex Ferguson’s team a heavily contentious penalty against Tottenham when they were 2-0 down in a game they went on to win 5-2.

This will be Webb’s first trip to Old Trafford since officiating the 8-2 mauling of Arsenal last season and his only game in charge of the league leaders so far in the current campaign was a 3-0 victory at Newcastle.

What should be noted is that any accusations that Webb favours Man Utd seem false on further inspection.

Both teams have been handed a penalty across the last three meetings between Man Utd and Liverpool, while Nemanja Vidic has also been sent off in this time.

Furthermore, both penalties Webb has given against Man Utd in the past five seasons have been at Old Trafford, where visitors allegedly are never awarded spot kicks.

The statistics do not show that Webb is any kind of a 12th man for Man Utd, but it is true that have a fantastic Old Trafford winning record when he is the man in the middle.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date