Premier League preview: Stoke v Manchester United

English Premier League leaders Manchester United will head to the Brittania Stadium full of confidence when they face Stoke City on Saturday.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side have won all five of their English Premier League fixtures, amassing an incredible 21 goals in the process.

The ease of which they have swept past the likes of Arsenal (8-2) and Bolton (5-0) suggests that last year’s champions have started where they left off last season.

New signings Ashley Young, Phil Jones and goalkeeper David de Gea have bedded in nicely and Wayne Rooney has already scored nine goals.

And any chance the terrific winning run could have been dented on Tuesday at Elland Road against arch-rivals Leeds United in the Carling Cup was quickly snuffed out by a pair of first-half strikes from veteran striker Michael Owen.

Ferguson played a largely second-string side in an important match that they won easily, which enabled the club’s stars to rest.

Stoke were forced to field a virtual full-strength side against Tottenham in the Carling Cup on Tuesday, and although they progressed on penalties after a 0-0 stalemate, 120 minutes of football cannot have done the Potters well in preparation for this fixture.

The match marked Stoke’s third match in five days and they may just suffer on Saturday against the high-flying side from Manchester.

But Stoke have been no pushovers in the Premier League this season and barring a 4-0 defeat at Sunderland in their last fixture, have impressed.

They beat Liverpool 1-0 in front of their notoriously noisy home crowd and Tony Pulis will give his side the belief that they can pull off a similar upset.

Kenwyne Jones, who was substituted after just 12 minutes in the victory over Tottenham, is in doubt for the match but could be replaced by Ricardo Fuller (Achilles) who is battling to return.

Former Manchester United player Danny Higginbotham is also a chance to return from injury, but it is likely that his ACL injury will keep him sidelined for at least another week.

Javier Hernandez suffered a leg injury in Manchester United’s 3-1 win over Chelsea in their last fixture and appears set to miss, but Danny Welbeck (hamstring) and Tom Cleverley (ankle) could make returns from injury.

Nemanja Vidic (calf) and Rafael (shoulder) remain on the sidelines but those two absences should not hurt the champions too much and they are favourites to make it six wins from as many matches.