West Ham took a huge step back in the previous Premier League match, as they conceded three goals inside eight minutes to face a massive 4-1 away defeat. This was the fourth league defeat for the Hammers, with all of them coming against top Premier League sides such as Aston Villa, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs.
Up next is another such huge match with Julen Lopetegui's side playing Erik Ten Hag's Manchester United at home. The Red Devils are twenty-time English Champions but their performances in the recent seasons has been largely inconsistent. This season, Manchester United started their league campaign with a last-minute 1-0 winner, however, have secured only two wins after that in the next seven matches.
Hammers aiming to secure a third consecutive home win against Manchester United
Similar to West Ham, Manchester United also made a number of high-profile signings such as Matthijs De Ligt, Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee, but are yet to improve their on-field results. Thus, similar to Hammers manager Julen Lopetegui, Erik Ten Hag's managerial future at the Old Trafford is uncertain and both of them would want to take an important win from this fixture.
While West Ham will have to play without star forward Mohammed Kudus, they are well-balanced to take some much-needed points from this match. This is due to the fact that the Red Devils also have had their goalscoring struggles and have managed to find the back of the net only seven times in the Premier League.
Further, West Ham have registered two consecutive home wins against Manchester United in the previous two seasons, thus, would want to complete a hat-trick of home league wins over the visitors. Moreover, these two sides were also involved in transfer talks for Wan-Bissaka's £15 million transfer move to West Ham during the summer transfer window, and the 26-year-old would also face his former side for the first time since joining the Hammers.
Although West Ham are three points behind Manchester United, a win by more than one goal, will help Lopetegui's side to go above the visitors in the league table. However, another defeat against a big Premier League team will further increase the speculations regarding the Hammers replacing Lopetegui in the coming weeks.
Now, it remains to be seen whether West Ham can take their third consecutive home win against Manchester United in the absence of 24-year-old star Mohammed Kudus.