Manchester United Match Preview

At either end of 2019, West Ham United had to play two games in as many days. Thankfully, it hasn’t been as quick a turnaround in recent years but it is time for the usual December midweek fixture programme with the Hammers travelling to Old Trafford to face Manchester United tonight.

The Red Devils were one of only two teams that the Hammers managed to do the double over last season and they will be hoping to bounce back from the defeat to Liverpool four days ago by seeing if they can replicate what they did back in May.

After letting their two-goal advantage slip at AFC Bournemouth twelve days ago, they now face back-to-back road trips in the hope that they can finally get that elusive second victory on their travels, given that they have only taken two points outside of Stratford since beating Nottingham Forest back on August 31.

This will be the second time that the two teams have faced each other this season as they previously met back on 26 July when the Irons were under Graham Potter’s stewardship as part of the Premier League Summer Series and the former Head-Coach saw his side suffer a 2-1 defeat in New Jersey.

Since then, Ruben Amorim’s side have shown signs of getting back to their dominant ways of the Sir Alex Ferguson era but are still showing some inconsistency.

After an unlikely defeat to Everton here ten days ago, the hosts bounced back in their next encounter, as they came from behind to beat Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park so they will want to build momentum again. On the other hand, the East Londoners have slipped back into the bottom three as a consequence of newly-promoted Leeds United engineering a surprise 3-1 victory at home to Chelsea on Wednesday night.

Both teams have had same amount of preparation time ahead of this clash but Amorim’s men do have a slight advantage over Nuno Espírito Santo’s side before their next game, as they are not in action until Monday when they face Wolverhampton Wanderers, whereas the Irons have to travel down to Brighton for a 2pm kick-off in just three days time.

Lucas Paquetá was restored to the starting line-up against the Reds on Sunday after a one-match suspension however, he is again suspended for this match following his red card for dissent in the 2-0 reverse, meaning Soungoutou Magassa could well keep his place in midfield.

The Hammers Head-Coach was hoping that Crysencio Summerville might have been back in contention for the trip to the North West but there are suggestions that he will be missing for a third successive game.

Konstantinos Mavropanos was selected ahead of Max Kilman against Arne Slot’s men and both players will be battling for that defensive spot.

The match is an 8pm kick-off and live coverage will be screened by Sky Sports from 7pm. The referee is Andrew Kitchen.