SATURDAY lunchtime's offering from the Premier League sees West Ham United welcome Manchester United to the London Stadium.
The two teams are separated by just one place and one point in the top-flight standings going into this fixture, with the Hammers housed in eighth place, while United are sitting seventh.
After suffering a 5-0 thumping at Fulham a fortnight ago, David Moyes' men got back up and running on the domestic front with a well-deserved 3-0 win over Wolves last weekend.
However, the capital club have since been crushed 5-1 in the Carabao Cup at Liverpool on Wednesday night, in a game that brought up my solitary Anfield selection.
As for Manchester United, they fared better than the Irons on their own visit to Merseyside last weekend when battling to a ship-steadying 0-0 draw.
Erik ten Hag will be hoping that stalemate will act as a springboard for further success when the Red Devils head to east London on Saturday.
Outright Betting
West Ham United claimed top honours from last season's corresponding fixture but they are narrow 8/5 (PaddyPower) outsiders to repeat the trick this weekend.
Manchester United are marginal 6/4 (PaddyPower) favourites while another share of the spoils on the road for the Red Devils can be backed at 13/5 (William Hill).
Betting Angles
This feels like a tricky fixture to tackle from a 1×2 perspective so I'm going to bypass the outright betting and instead merge Manchester United to Score and Luke Shaw to commit a foul at 20/21 with Bet 365.
While Man United are quite simply a team who cannot be trusted for win-only purposes, they can at least land a blow against a West Ham side who have been leaking goals at an alarming rate in recent weeks.
Not only have the Hammers shipped five goals in each of their recent fixtures with both Fulham and Liverpool respectively, but they only failed to silence their opponents in two of their 17 top-flight outings this term to date.
The likes of Everton, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Place have all made the net bulge on their recent visits to the London Stadium and latest opponents Manchester United can follow suit.
Admittedly, the Red Devils have fired blanks in their last two road games at Newcastle and Liverpool, but they are unlikely to face the same resistance when they go up against a West Ham side that are unreliable when it comes to being watertight at the back.
As such, I'll back the visitors to strike on Saturday, but to bolster the odds, I'll also opt for Luke Shaw to commit at least one foul during this televised tussle.
The United left-back has tackled his way into trouble in each of his last three Premier League appearances and that trend could continue this weekend given that his direct opponent is likely to be West Ham's man of the moment Mohammed Kudus.
Switching attention to the other end of the park, I'm also keen to get on board with West Ham's Kurt Zouma to commit a foul at 11/8.
The French centre-half has been reprimanded by the referee in each of his last three top-flight outings and he looks overpriced to commit a solitary foul on Saturday given the pace and flair that Man United possess in forward areas.
This English Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester United will be played on Dec 23, 2023 and kick off at 12:30. Check below for our tipsters best West Ham United vs Manchester United prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
