West Ham welcome Manchester United to the London Stadium in a nervy clash between two teams looking to challenge for Europe.
West Ham can climb to third with victory irrespective of what those sat below them do earlier in the day whilst Man Utd look to leapfrog the Hammers and move up to fourth.
Team News
Andriy Yarmolenko is West Ham’s only potential absentee after self-isolating for the past fortnight following a positive Coronavirus test, whilst away on international duty for Ukraine.
Man Utd could be without Marcus Rashford (shoulder) and David De Gea (knock) alongside Luke Shaw (hamstring) whilst Phil Jones (knee) remains a few weeks away from full match fitness and selection.
Stat Attack
- West Ham have lost just one of their last five meetings against Manchester United (W2, D2, L1).
- Man Utd have won just one of their four trips to the London Stadium (W1, D1, L2).
- West Ham have scored all three of their Premier League penalties against United in 48 meetings whereas Man Utd have scored four of their five spot-kicks.
- No Hammers player has been utilised as a substitute in Premier League this season more times than Sebastien Haller, who has come on from the bench on six occasions.
- No Man Utd players have won more aerial battles this season than Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba who have won nine aerial battles apiece in seven appearances each.
Prediction
West Ham produced two lightning starts in both halves against Aston Villa which proved crucial to their victory in what was a tough encounter between two improved teams, with the Hammers showing agility when defending to track back even when Villa threw in several through balls whilst Lukasz Fabianski was impressive in goal.
Man Utd meanwhile clearly have set piece and aerial issues because their performances when defending from set pieces and aerial battles at times was poor at Southampton, although they did dig deep as the more dominant team to come back and win yet undid that progress with a poor midweek effort against PSG.
Either way we should see a great battle here but given Man Utd’s unpredictable form at times and poor record at London Stadium, I feel that West Ham might have enough to edge this encounter and particularly given the poor penalty conversion record for away teams here of late.
Prediction: West Ham 2-1 Manchester United
Result: West Ham 1-3 Manchester United