Manchester United vs West Ham Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Haydn Cunningham Dec 03, 2015 @ 07:03 pm

Manchester United couldn’t prevent Jamie Vardy from breaking the Premier League record at the weekend as Vardy scored for the 13^th consecutive Premier League game that broke the record previously set by United’s Ruud Van Nistelrooy. They did equalise which has kept them 1 point off Leicester and 1 point ahead of Arsenal fortunately as Arsenal failed to take advantage at Norwich City. Manchester City did capitalise however with a 3-1 home win over Southampton to take them back to the top of the table. It was just the 2^nd goal United have conceded in the past 7 games but they’re back at Old Trafford Saturday where they’ve conceded just 1 goal in 6 home league matches this season. They welcome a West Ham side that have slipped of late and find themselves in 8^th. Louis Van Gaal’s side are unbeaten in 6 Premier League games but have drawn 50% of them and will need to start turning these draws into victories should they wish to regain the title.

West Ham are experiencing their worst patch of form in the season after going 4 games without a victory. The latest result was a poor 1-1 draw at home to West Brom on Sunday which was not helped by the unfortunate own goal by Winston Reid. An early free kick from Mauro Zarate put Slaven Bilic’s side on their way but it wasn’t enough to see off Tony Pulis’s side who came back in the 2^nd half in fortunate circumstances. In the end, West Ham were grateful for a point after a sensational point blank save from Adrian to deny Solomon Rondon. West Ham have dropped to 8^th after victories for Crystal Palace and Liverpool but they won’t be particularly concerned after a solid start to the campaign. The injury suffered to Dimitri Payet before the international break is a cruel one for the East-London side but they’ll be hoping Manuel Lanzini can step up to the mark and fill the boots of Payet until his return.

Manchester United have won the past 8 meetings when these two have met at Old Trafford. The last time West Ham gained anything from Old Trafford was back in May 2007 where former United forward Carlos Tevez scored the decisive goal that helped keep West Ham up. Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were all 2^nd half substitutes in that game! United have also had a man sent off in the past couple of fixtures against West Ham but didn’t lose on either occasion. West Ham have scored just 1 goal on each of their past 3 games but face a United side who’ve kept 6 clean sheets in the past 7 games in all competitions.

Louis Van Gaal made just 1 substitution in the draw at Leicester City mainly due to the fact his only attacking option was Memphis Depay who found himself on the bench after a run of 3 successive starts. He came on for Wayne Rooney who looked to be suffering from the illness that saw him miss the midweek draw against PSV Eindhoven. West Ham are starting to welcome back players from injury with Pedro Obiang starting against West Brom and Alex Song fit enough for a place on the bench. Dimitri Payet is a huge miss for the visitors.

Manchester United

Stats: W-8 L-2 D-4

Recent Form – WWWDD

West Ham

Stats: W-6 L-4 D-4

Recent Form - WLDLD

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Leicester City (4-4-2) – De Gea, Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Rojo, Carrick, Schweinsteiger, Mata, Young, Rooney, Martial

West Ham (4-2-3-1) – Adrian, Jenkinson, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Kouyate, Song, Lanzini, Zarate, Moses, Carroll

Injury List/Suspended Players

Manchester United – Valencia (inj), Shaw (inj), Herrera (inj), Lingard (inj), Jones (inj)
West Ham – Payet, (inj), Valencia (inj), Randolph (inj), Sakho (inj)

Manchester United v West Ham Head to Head

League Positions