Manchester United Match Preview
Remarkably, David Moyes is still yet to get a top-flight victory over Manchester United since leaving Old Trafford in 2014. He has the chance again tonight, as the Red Devils make the journey to East London.
After back-to-back away games and three consecutive defeats, the Hammers need to recapture the form they had shown up until the last eleven days and hopefully inflict more misery on Erik ten Hag’s men which should see them retain their Premier League status.
The hosts will definitely want to get their rhythm back here as after this game, attention quickly turns to Thursday night’s UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final first-leg when the East Londoners are back here, facing Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.
Both sides suffered defeats in midweek with the Irons giving a good account of themselves but ultimately falling to defeat at current Champions Manchester City four days ago, while their opponents were on the wrong end of a last-ditch loss against Brighton and Hove Albion at The American Express Community Stadium a day later, meaning that the hosts benefited from one extra day’s preparation.
This will be the third time that the two teams have met this season and West Ham will have to try and stop their visitors from completing a third success over them after they once again dumped the Irons out of the FA Cup at the fifth-round stage back in March.
The Hammers remain in fifteenth place in the table after the defeat against Josep Guardiola’s side but will be looking to get back on track here.
The Hammers’ boss will hope to have his Captain Declan Rice back in contention, as well as Tomáš Souček and Nayef Aguerd after the trio all missed the game at The Etihad Stadium with illness. Vladimír Coufal is definitely not going to be involved after sustaining a hamstring injury against the Citizens last time out, meaning Thilo Kehrer is likely to keep his place in defence. Maxwel Cornet might also play a part.
Moyes stated in his pre-match news conference on Friday that more players have picked up the virus that prevented Rice, Souček and Aguerd from being involved on Wednesday but he didn’t mention specific names.
The match is a 7pm kick-off and live coverage is being screened by BT Sport from 6:30pm. The referee is Peter Bankes.