Match Preview: West Ham vs. Manchester United

United’s trip to the Boleyn Ground- or Upton Park as it’s known- tonight could prove one of the final nails in the coffin that is Manchester City’s paper thin title hopes. A win for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men and regardless of what City do at home to Wigan, the title race is effectively over as it would take the Reds to lose their remaining five games to hand Mancini’s men the title.

Wins at West Ham can’t be taken for granted though, as going back as far as 91/92 and 94/95 visits to the East End of London have proved disastrous for the Reds in title races. This trip is a little different though as United have never been in a stronger position visiting the Hammers in the latter stages of a season.

With almost a full squad of players to choose from Sir Alex can afford to really go for it against old mate Sam Allardyce, although he may want to rest some of those who played at Stoke on Sunday.

West Ham away.

Team News
Fergie has no new injury concerns ahead of the trip to the capital as Scholes (knee) and Young (ankle) remain sidelined. Cleverley, Evans, Giggs, Welbeck, Nani and Rafael will all be looking for a recall but, with the league offering United their only fixtures between now and the end of the season rotating the squad will become less and less necessary.
For West Ham Tomkins, Reid and McCartney are all doubtful as are Noble and Joe Cole.

Match Prediction
As many of the older readers of this preview will recall, West Ham have previous with regards scuppering United’s Premier League title quest but I can’t really see them having too much of an impact tonight. Ferguson showed against Stoke, even though we didn’t really set the world on fire, that he’s going for it now. Kagawa, Rooney, RVP, Valencia and Hernandez all in the same starting line up suggested that we were hunting for goals and I would expect United to line up in much the same manner with maybe a few personnel changes. Rafael could be asked to come back in at right back. This could leave Phil Jones sidelined or, possibly, shifted into midfield – a position that many fans see him making his own in the future. Former Hammer and current United ever-present, Carrick, should start as should Rooney and RVP. Where Rooney plays, however, remains a mystery. Personally, I really enjoyed seeing him deeper and, if repeated tonight, it would be interesting to see Welbeck partner RVP.

What They’re Saying
Vidic: Yes, you think you’re almost there but you have to win the games. Now it’s West Ham and we have to play well again. They play in a similar style to Stoke – we’re going to have long balls and set-pieces to deal with.

Allardyce: I think you have to say they are as good as they have ever been because nobody normally wins the title so easily and by so big a margin, or has this much of a margin at this stage of the season.

Rooney: We are in a great position but we have to make sure we move on and push ourselves over that line.

Evra: He said before the Stoke game that the season starts now. He has just told us to win the seven games that are left. That shows you the way he wants to win this 20th title. He told us not to think about the title, just think about winning these seven games.

Ferguson: We took 20 players with us to Stoke and those 20 players will go with us again tomorrow.

Here’s my United line up:

DDG, Rafael, Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Danny Welbeck, Robin Van Persie.

Can the likes of Carrick, RVP and Rio play two games in four days?