Overview
Michael Carrick hopes his return to his old club West Ham will help reviving Manchester United win 3 more points.
The former England national team midfielder grew up from West Ham's youth academy, played 136 times for the first team before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in 2004, and then joined Man United two seasons later.
Carrick returned to southern England after an impressive start as interim manager of Man United in his second term. He won all 4 opening matches in the league, bringing the "Red Devils" to fourth place in the Premier League table.
Victories against Manchester City, Arsenal and Fulham paved the way for a 2-0 victory over Spurs with only 10 players last weekend. Tottenham were defeated by equal goals in each half by Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes at Old Trafford, after the visiting team captain Cristian Romero received a red card in the 29th minute.
Carrick's most outstanding achievement came in his most recent away match, when Man United defeated league leaders Arsenal 3-2 thanks to Matheus Cunha's beautiful late goal. The Brazilian striker now hopes to continue to make his mark, after contributing to 7 goals in his last 5 away matches at the tournament (4 goals, 3 assists).
However, Cunha has not scored after 5 encounters with West Ham in the Premier League. Only the number of matches against Man City is more and he is still goalless (6). However, the former Wolves striker is likely not to lack opportunities at the London Stadium.
Man United captain Bruno Fernandes has directly participated in 10 goals in the last 8 away matches in the Premier League (2 goals, 8 assists). 8 away assists this season are also the highest achievement of a Man United player in a season, equaling Ryan Giggs' record in the 2001-2002 season. And Fernandes can completely surpass that milestone when Man United still has 7 away trips.
If Fernandes continues to sublimate, it will be very difficult to deny the opportunity for Man United to maintain impressive form away from home. "The Red Devils" have only lost 1/9 of their most recent away matches in the Premier League (4 wins, 4 draws), after losing 2/3 away matches at the beginning of the season.
Man United have also won the last 2 away matches against London teams, respectively against Arsenal and Crystal Palace. However, they have never won 3 consecutive matches in the capital in the same season since 2019.
However, Carrick understands that his team must be particularly vigilant with Jarrod Bowen, who has scored 3 goals in the last 5 encounters with Man United in the Premier League. In the history of the league, no West Ham player has scored more than 3 goals against the "Red Devils".
No matter how well Bowen performs, West Ham's recent home form is generally very poor. They have only won 4/20 recent Premier League matches at home (4 draws, 12 losses). 3 of them were against newly promoted teams, and when facing other teams, The Hammers only won 6 points from 16 home matches in the same period (1 win, 3 draws, 12 losses).
However, Nuno Espirito Santo's army has fought bravely in recent weeks, winning 3/4 of their recent Premier League matches (1 loss) - equal to the number of wins they have had in the previous 21 matches (5 draws, 13 losses).
West Ham just won an important 2-0 victory at the home of relegation contender Burnley. Crysencio Summerville scored in his fifth consecutive match in all competitions, and Valentin Castellanos scored his first Premier League goal for the club. West Ham entered round 26 with a gap of only 3 points from the safe position.
Head-to-head record
West Ham has a fairly good recent head-to-head record against Man United when winning both legs last season. They also drew 1-1 at Old Trafford in the first leg this season, with a late equalizer from Soungoutou Magassa.
However, in history, West Ham only once avoided defeat in both legs against the "Red Devils" in two consecutive seasons. That was the period 1932-1933 and 1933-1934.
Score prediction: West Ham 1-2 Man United
The match between West Ham and Man United takes place at 3:15 am on February 11 (Vietnam time).
