Will lunchtime luck continue?

The Reds are seeking a fourth straight Premier League win under Michael Carrick and the kick-off time of 12:30 GMT brings good omens for the meeting with his former club.

As highlighted by Opta, we’ve won all four of our home Premier League games that have got under way in that slot, since the start of the 2022/23 season.

The Reds have also kept a clean sheet in each of the last three, including the raucous 2-0 defeat of Manchester City last month.

January’s derby was our first early Saturday kick-off at home for almost two years, since another 2-0 win, versus Everton, under Erik ten Hag.

Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford scored first-half penalties that day, to see off the Toffees’ challenge in March 2024.

There was an earlier two-goal success over the Toffees, in April 2023, with Scott McTominay and Anthony Martial the men to find the net, in our ultimately successful bid to reach the Champions League.

The sequence started in January of that year, and again Manchester City were the opponents. Jack Grealish gave the visitors the lead, but Fernandes sparked a late turnaround, before Rashford slid home the winner.

Saturday lunchtime fixtures in M16 have been rare in recent years and our most recent slip-up came in February 2022, when Southampton escaped with a 1-1 draw.

Spurs are unbeaten in eight games against United, and will be hoping to become the first away team since Manchester City in November 2021 to win an early Saturday game at the Theatre of Dreams.

Incidentally, that was our final home outing under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as Carrick took charge for the next M16 fixture, against Arsenal, on an interim basis before the arrival of Ralf Rangnick.

Thomas Frank has lost on each of his four visits to the stadium as Brentford boss, and the Londoners haven’t taken three points in the league since overcoming Crystal Palace at the end of December.