Saturday 21 September 2019

It's the 'Barry McGuigan' but there's no sign of Lanzini?



West ham 'welcome' Manchester United to the London stadium tomorrow looking to further their push for top six status. After a decent point away to Villa on Monday, despite playing the final quarter with only ten men, spirits are high in the camp. However, key man Manuel Lanzini is a doubt and sat out training today. With Fornals pushing for a starting spot West ham should still hope to reproduce last season's enjoyable 3-1 victory.

Of note, West ham have only beaten Man United twice in their last 21 Premiership meetings (W2 D5 L14) and in terms of their top six aspirations need to improve on their poor record against top six teams which stands at only three wins in their last 20 matches (W3 D6 L11)!

The visitors are running hot and cold so far this season and will be without both Pogba and Martial which will place a lot of responsibility on Marcus Rashford to lead the line. The clash between Sebastien Haller and Harry Maguire will be fascinating and will be a major factor in deciding the result.

Aaron Cresswell comes in for the suspended Arthur Masuaku but otherwise West ham will hope to start unchanged if Lanzini can make the cut.

Anthony Taylor is the match referee and will hopefully do a better job than the dreadful Mike Dean did on Monday night.

The Hammers are rated as outsiders by the bookies and look a decent bet for the win at 9/4. Man united are 6/5 while the draw is 5/2. Mystic Mark Lawrenson has tipped the Hammers to win, which may be a mixed blessing! Similarly, Charlie Nicholas reckons the Hammers will prevail while Michael Owen is sitting on the fence by predicting a draw.

Fans should note that the club are running an exhibit of memorabilia from the 1980 FA cup victory which includes Alvin Martin's medal - surely worth a visit!

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