Manchester United v West Ham United
Football : English Premier League
Saturday 28 August 2010 - Kickoff 5:30pm

This game is live on TV

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Manchester United

Manchester United were left kicking themselves last week as they took a lead against Fulham with 5 minutes left of the game and still managed to drop 2 points. Nani missed a penalty before Brede Hangeland scored in the last minute, but the result could prove valuable over the course of the season. Sir Alex Ferguson saw his side drawn in a relatively comfortable Champions League group which should seem minimul impact on their Premier League campaign this side of the New Year.

United made a strong start to the new season with a 3-0 win over Newcastle United at Old Trafford and the point at Fulham could be seen as 1 gained at a ground that they had lost 2 Premier League games in a row. Old Trafford was a tough ground for visiting teams and the Red Devils were 16-1-2 there last season, scoring 52 goals and conceding just 12, giving them the best home defence in the League.

There was some good news coming out of Old Trafford this week as Rio Ferdinand and Anderson both begun training again and should be back sooner than expected. Wayne Rooney missed last weekends game with a virus but should start here. Paul Scholes is expected to be rested after his early season form, but with the International break around the corner, that may not be the case.

Possible Manchester United Line Up: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Berbatov and Rooney (4-4-2)

West Ham United

West Ham United have made a disappointing start to the season which led to suggestions from manager Avram Grant that they are suffering mentally from the battles of last season with relegation and perhaps are also lacking in confidence and belief in their own abilities. Grant must be cursing his luck that the next 2 games have his team visiting Manchester United and then hosting Chelsea.

I called it a disappointing start for West Ham United, but 6 goals conceded in 2 Premier League defeats is perhaps a little more than disappointing. Aston Villa's struggles since beating West Ham suggest it was a poor performance from the Hammers rather than a good performance from Villa and last week Bolton comfortably won 1-3 at Upton Park. West Ham struggled badly away from Upton Park last season and were just 1-6-12, scoring 17 goals and conceding 37. Their only win came in their opening game of the season.

Matthew Upson should return to the side after suffering an injury last weekend. Frederic Piquionne is likely to come out of the side as West Ham should deploy a 5 man midfield with Radoslav Kovac coming in.

Possible West Ham United Line Up: Green, Faubert, Ilunga, Upson, Gabbidon, Parker, Noble, Kovac, Barrera, Dyer and Cole (4-5-1)

Head to Head

A couple of seasons ago, West Ham went through a mini-run of 3 successive Premier League victories over Manchester United but since then they have lost 5 in a row.

The sides have met 15 times at Old Trafford during the Premier League years, and Manchester United have won 13 including the last 3. West Ham have won the other 2 games.

7 of the last 10 games here have seen Manchester United beat the Hammers by 2 or more goals.

Prediction

Sir Alex Ferguson was not happy in the manner that United dropped points last Sunday but there is plenty more positives coming out of the club at the moment. Paul Scholes is deservedly receiving a lot of good press, but United will be hoping Wayne Rooney can start taking some of those Sunday morning headlines back off the Ginger Prince.

West Ham United could not have picked many more difficult away games for themselves and the negativity of hearing their Captain Scott Parker claim he is 'dreading' the game can not have filtered well through the dressing room. They will need to defend better than they have in their first 2 games if they want to escape with their pride even if they do not get the points.

Manchester United will want to make a statement here after seeing Chelsea already develop a strong goal difference early in the season. The draw at Fulham for the Red Devils cannot be good news for West Ham as the reaction to that result will be on display here.

United should win this, and win this well.

The Pick :

Manchester United 4-0 West Ham United

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Manchester United - 2.25 Asian Handicap