PREVIEW: Manchester United v. West Ham United

Having supported the Hammers for pretty much all my life, I’m still trying to work out why I was so surprised with our Capital One Cup victory over Spurs on Wednesday night.

After all, it’s typical West Ham to struggle for results in the Premier League and then pull out a big result out of the blue. You’ve only got to look back at our last League Cup quarter-final against Manchester United in 2010 to see that we tend to operate backwards at times. Back then we were struggling in the league under Avram Grant, but still ran out comfortable 4-0 winners over United on a snowy November evening under the Upton Park lights. Oh the memories.

Wednesday’s 2-1 victory came as a surprising surprise and there’s every reason to believe that Saturday’s trip to Old Trafford could provide much of the same.

United under David Moyes are beatable, particularly at home. They’re in a transitional period and finding it tough to adapt to Moyes’ ‘style’ of player after so many years under Sir Alex Ferguson.

So, with that in mind, we have the perfect opportunity to take the victory over Spurs up north and use it as a much needed confidence booster. It could be argued that United are in a similar situation as Spurs. A new manager (Tim Sherwood is temporarily in charge, but before that the players were struggling to adapt to Andre Villas-Boas’ style of play), lack of winning mentality and poor form at home are all things both Spurs and United are currently experiencing.

While the mighty Hammers appear to be becoming specialists at capitalising on such weaknesses on the Premier League’s ‘top’ teams.

It’s a big ask to come away with all three points from Old Trafford, particularly when you consider we haven’t scored a goal in any competition there since 2008, but you can be sure that Allardyce will have a game plan worthy of a point at least.

We’ve been to Old Trafford twice under Allardyce and both times we’ve come away empty handed after narrow 1-0 defeats. One was down to a deflected Robin Van Persie goal after just 30 seconds and the other came from a Wayne Rooney penalty.

If we can approach this game in the same way we did against Tottenham then there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t take something back to London with us. Regardless of our precarious league position, a point would be a fantastic result for us on Saturday.

Just as long as we don’t roll over, like we did at Anfield two weeks ago, we’ll be worthy of a positive result. Modibo Maiga to get on the scoresheet? Don’t bet against it. His mid-week goal will have given him the confidence to push on, such was the importance of his 85th minute winner.

Verdict: As long as we play well we should be ok. Goalless.

Team News:

Manchester United (8th, 25 points)

Michael Carrick and Robin Van Persie are both ruled out through injury.

David Moyes will be hoping Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Marouane Fellaini can overcome their own injury problems in time to feature.

West Ham United (17th, 14 points)

The Hammers are still without Winston Reid, Andy Carroll, Ricardo Vaz Te, Mladen Petric and Stewart Downing through long-term injury.

James Tomkins is a doubt but Allardyce is confident he can recover in time to feature at Old Trafford.

Captain Kevin Nolan completes his three-game suspension and should return to the side to face Arsenal on Boxing Day.

Last 10 Meetings:

Match in Numbers:

8 – United have kept a clean-sheet in eight of their last 10 home matches against the Hammers.

50 – If he scores, it will be Carlton Cole’s 50th league goal for the Hammers.

5 – West Ham have register a goal at Old Trafford in any competition for five years.

6 – And it is six years since the Hammers last beat Manchester United in the Premier League.

8 – Manchester United have scored just eight Premier League goals at Old Trafford this season, which is the fifth lowest in the division.

1 – West Ham have won just one of their eight Premier League away matches so far this season (D3, L4)

34 – United have not lost three successive Premier League home matches since 1979 – 34 years ago.

Head-to-Head (all competitions)