West Ham v Man Utd Prediction: Best bets for Super Sunday clash

Fresh off the back of their European endeavours in the midweek, these two sides return to domestic duty with a duel at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon. 

The hosts ended their five-year sabbatical from the UEL with an impressive 2-0 victory over Croatia’s most successful club Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday. However, David Moyes fielded a very strong eleven for that fixture - which included the likes of Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek - therefore, it may be difficult to revitalise his squad given the quick turnaround.

Michail Antonio’s suspension is also a major blow for the Hammers here after the start he made to the season, bagging five goals and three assists in five appearances. Jarrod Bowen will probably spearhead the attack in his absence but for all his hard work, he likes the killer instinct of his predecessor.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær will be keen to put the disappointing result on Tuesday behind him in which the Manchester United supremo was almost entirely responsible. After going down to ten men just before the first half, Solskjær went to a back five, a tactical switch that saw his side surrender possession in an attempt to cling onto the three points. After Young Boys equalised, Solskjær responded by taking Cristiano Ronaldo off for Jesse Lingard. It was Lingard’s loose back pass that was intercepted and dispatched.

In terms of team selection, Jadon Sancho could be left out after a poor start to the season. Edison Cavani has been ruled out of this game but is expected to make his first appearance of the season in the EFL Cup next week.

Price wise, the value is with the Red Devils. At around 3/4 the visitors expected chance of victory is 57%, however, they have actually won 79% of their games when priced accordingly. 

David Moyes has reignited his career and reinvented himself at the Hammers. Post Everton, he got tarnished with the reputation of being a bit of a firefighter and subsequently his sides became quite dull. In hindsight, perhaps he was just building a solid foundation in the beginning of his tenures in the hope that he could infuse more offensive play as his seasons rolled on. However, he never got the chance to do that prior to his second and current stint at WHU. 

This campaign, domestically, this bet has landed in all bar one of West Ham’s fixtures as the games have averaged 3.75 goals! Last season we saw a shift in how Moyes set his side up against the big teams as well. In seasons gone by we would have seen a Moyes side set up to play off the counter and pounce in transition but last season we saw WHU go toe-to-toe. In the 14 games against the traditional ‘big six’ and Leicester, this bet landed in nine games as the fixtures averaged 3.4 goals per game.

As we were reminded of on Tuesday, Solskjær is not the most tactically astute manager. He has a wealth of attacking talent which he appears to just set free with very little structure leaving the holding midfielder and defence vulnerable. The fact that Newcaslte, Southampton and Leeds have all scored against them this season perfectly illustrates this. In fact, Wolves are the only team that have not managed to put one past them so far but they generated an xG of 2.55! 

In order to accommodate the catalog of scintillating attacking talent at Manchester United, Paul Pogba has dropped into CDM. Previously he was playing off the left and it seemed OGS had found the perfect position for him to showcase all his defence splitting passes and tidy touches without his poor positional sense and discipline being exposed defensively. With the arrival of Ronaldo it looks like Pogba will be slotting back in at CDM and given his defensive liabilities his price for a card appeals here. 

So far this season, Pogba has picked up three cards in four appearances, a total that no EPL player is currently topping. The Frenchman also has the third highest fouls per game average (2.8) of anyone in the league. 

Over the course of his career, he has averaged 0.19 cards per 90 and this does make his price marginal value as it is. Given the start he has made to this campaign, and the fact that he has played almost every minute of it, I really like the look of this angle.

For my longshot this week I have gone for a bit of a speculative punt via Bet365’s ‘Bet Builder’, it is West Ham to be winning at half time and Manchester United to win the match. You find these selections under the results tab of the Bet Builder. 

As alluded to above, I think the attacking emphasis both managers will put on their sides will encourage goals. Manchester United made a habit of going behind last campaign and I think they might be slow to shake off the disappointment of the UCL on Tuesday which could see Moyes’ men in front at HT. However, with Ronaldo and co, I cannot see past an away victory here. 

Best of luck if you are following any of these selections and please remember to gamble responsibly.