LONDON (AP):

With Manchester United's defence continuing to leak goals, the pressure will be on Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie to deliver at the other end when they head to Newcastle for the Premier League's standout game this weekend.

United have fallen behind in six of their nine games this season, including last weekend when Tottenham raced into an early lead and hung on for a 3-2 win that ended a 23-year barren run at Old Trafford.

That result saw United slip to third place - four points behind early leaders Chelsea after six games - and a defence lacking captain Nemanja Vidic is sure to come under more scrutiny at St James' Park on Sunday, with Newcastle having the top scorer in the league in Demba Ba.

"It does bother us having to come from behind because we are losing those early goals," Rooney said. "It is not nice and it is something that we have to stop because we cannot afford to keep letting teams get a head start on us."

Thankfully for United, they have Van Persie in great scoring form in attack, with seven goals in eight games since his summer move from Arsenal, and Rooney fully recovered from a badly gashed leg that kept him out for a month.

The pair started together for the first time in Tuesday's match against Cluj, with Rooney - playing in an attacking midfield role - setting up both of Van Persie's goals in a 2-1 win in Romania.

"The best quality both of them have is that they can turn a game," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "That is an important feature. It doesn't really matter if they have a personal combination, it is their ability to finish moves off, whether it is through (Tom) Cleverley, Nani or (Antonio) Valencia.

"We have a pair of really top players who can finish and change a game."

Mid-table Newcastle beat United 3-0 in the corresponding fixture last season, helped by a commanding display by Ba, who has started this season with a goal-a-game average.

Injured United defence

Ba and his fellow Senegal striker Papiss Demba Cisse will fancy their chances of ruffling a United defence that is shorn of injured trio Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Vidic. With another centre back, Jonny Evans, limping off against Cluj, Ferguson is so short of cover in his backline that youngster Scott Wootton could be called up to start alongside Rio Ferdinand.

By the time United play, they could be seven points behind Chelsea in the standings, with the European champions hosting Norwich on Saturday. Second-place Everton, who are a point ahead of United, are at Wigan, fourth-place Manchester City play Sunderland and Arsenal are at West Ham.

Newcastle (4-4-2)

HARPER, PERCH, S TAYLOR, WILLIAMSON, SANTON, BEN ARFA, TIOTE, BIGIRIMANA, GUTIERREZ, CISSE BA

United (4-4-2)

VAN PERSIE, KAGAWA, GIGGS, CARRICK, SCHOLES, NANI, EVRA, EVANS, FERDINAND, RAFAEL, LINDEGAARD

This is not an impressive start by Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League. They have dropped six points, including the three they handed to Spurs last Saturday when they lost 3-2 at Old Trafford.

Indeed, United have conceded the opening goal in five of their six games in the Premier League.

It is the first time Sir Alex Ferguson, their manager, has suffered two defeats in his opening six games for 10 years. On that occasion, in 2002, they took only eight points from the first six and had dropped as low as ninth, but still managed to win the Premier League title by five points ahead of Arsenal.

Newcastle are on a decent run. Since losing at home to Chelsea in their second game, they are unbeaten in four, including last Saturday's 2-2 draw at Reading where Demba Ba took his tally for the season to six with both goals in the draw at the Madejski Stadium.

United have scored 14 goals, the most in the division, and will hope that Wayne Rooney, who came on at half time against Spurs, is fit enough to start at the Sports Direct Arena.

In midweek, United went to Romania and won 2-1 against FC Cluj in the Champions league, with both goals coming from Robin van Persie.