West Ham-Manchester United is a match valid for the thirty-fifth day of the Premier League and is played on Sunday at 8 pm: predictions.
West Ham is not yet mathematically safe, while Manchester United has not yet secured fourth place. Ergo, there will be no shortage of motivation in the London Stadium challenge, one of the two Sunday Premier League postponements.
The Hammers have 34 points at the moment, four more than third-last Nottingham Forest, which will be engaged in a very delicate direct clash with Southampton tomorrow. In short, they cannot stay quiet. David Moyes’ team has again complicated its life by losing three games in a row, mainly due to a calendar that is terrifying to say the least: in the space of a few weeks it had to face Manchester City and Liverpool, with little chance of bringing points home; less justifiable, on the other hand, was the defeat suffered two days ago in the derby with Crystal Palace at the end of a thrilling 4-3 win. At least a couple of wins are needed for the London outfit to be certain of playing in the top flight again next year. In between, however, there is the Conference League semifinal double with Dutch side Az Alkmaar: getting to lift the cup would mean securing a Europa League pass, as well as obviously “saving” the season.
Manchester United, watch out for Liverpool
Manchester United can focus exclusively on the league instead, waiting to play the FA Cup final at Wembley against their cousins Manchester City.
Weghorst
Red Devils coach Erik ten Hag’s goal is to arrive at that fixture with Champions League qualification already in the bag, but it won’t be at all easy now that Liverpool is back in the race for fourth place. Jurgen Klopp’s Reds also cleared Brentford yesterday, nibbling more points off United, which now has only one more. However, Bruno Fernandes and co. still have the “bonus” of two matches to make up against Liverpool, which could allow them to take the lead again. Away from home, meanwhile, the Red Devils continue to limp along: in the week they narrowly surrendered to Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton (1-0), who came out on top in the last minute of stoppage time thanks to a penalty converted by Argentine Mac Allister. Manchester United had not lost in the Premier League since last April 2. Ten Hag also has to deal with several absences in London: usual emergency in defense, with Varane and Lisandro stopped in the pits.
The prediction
Despite the defensive emergency, Manchester United should respond after the defeat to Brighton by eking out a victory at London Stadium in a game that, in any case, will in all likelihood be much more hard-fought than expected. In our opinion, West Ham, not yet safe, will sell their skins dearly by managing to score at least one goal.
The probable lineups of West Ham-Manchester United
- WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Kehrer, Ogbonna, Aguerd, Emerson Palmieri; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Paqueta, Benrahma; Antonio.
- MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3): De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Shaw, Dalot; Bruno Fernandes, Casemiro, Eriksen; Antony, Rashford, Sancho.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
