Football Bet of the Day: Will the James Milner red mist descend vs Man United?

Saturday's football bet of the day looks like a fun one, with a 3/1 shot for a player to be carded at the Amex Stadium as Brighton & Hove Albion host Manchester United in the Premier League (12:30, TNT Sports 1).

There's probably a long list of footballers that don't like Erik ten Hag's side for one reason or another, but this man might well top them all..

Brighton & Hove Albion vs Manchester United Odds

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James Milner - born in Leeds, grew up in Leeds, developed in the Leeds United academy system, and played over 50 times for LUFC. Do I need to expand further on just how much Milner despises Manchester United?

Okay, let's throw in 203 appearances for Manchester City, and 332 for Liverpool. Premier League titles since Milner won his first at City in 2012: Man United - one, Milner - three. Let's just say there's no love lost between the former England international and the red side of Manchester.

Milner has faced the Red Devils 42 times in his career, scoring four times but, crucially, picking up seven yellow cards along the way. That averages at one in every six games, while the average lowers to one in every seven in the Premier League. His last booking against Man United actually came back in February 2019 for Liverpool, in a goalless draw at Old Trafford.

On the face of it, he has been better behaved in recent years against his arch-nemesis, keeping his slate clean in seven subsequent appearances.

However, he only started two of those games, coming off in the 73rd minute of one, while he played a collective 56 minutes across five fleeting substitute outings, including just 13 minutes in his only appearance for Brighton against them last September, when the Seagulls were already 3-1 up and cruising to three points.

Milner looks likely to take on a more prominent role on Saturday, however. He started the first match of the Fabian Hurzeler era last weekend, a 3-0 victory over Everton at Goodison Park, and was booked just after the half-hour mark. The Toffees are another of Milner's least preferred clubs on account of his Liverpool connections, and it didn't take him long to get into the referee's notebook there.

Football Odds

With Billy Gilmour seemingly Napoli-bound, Carlos Baleba failing to feature from the bench against Everton and Matt O'Riley still yet to sign from Celtic, all the indications are that Milner will be handed back-to-back starts by Hurzeler.

The veteran midfielder has an important role in helping to settle the new players - and there are plenty of them - both off the pitch and on it. Mats Wieffer joined from Feyenoord in the summer and already looks to be entrusted with helping to build up the Brighton attacks from deep. He was impressive at Goodison Park but was helped by the experience of Milner, who has seen it all in his many years at the top.

Milner averaged 0.7 fouls per game in the Premier League last season, receiving three yellows in 15 appearances - 11 of which were starts - and in just 13 minutes of action against Man Utd at Old Trafford, made one foul.

With the likes of Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Amad in the Red Devils line-up on Saturday, there are sure to be plenty of opportunities for Milner to fly into a challenge, and with his powers on the wane - certainly compared to, say, five years ago - there is a good chance he could commit a foul, or two, or three, and pick up a long-awaited card against his old rivals.

Offers

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