Exclusive: McAvennie pays tribute to Moyes and predicts result of West Ham v Man United
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie believes West Ham are capable of beating Manchester United at the London Stadium on Saturday but predicts the game to end as a 1-1 draw.
For the first time since February, West Ham supporters will be able to watch their team in action at the London Stadium with 2,000 fans allowed to attend this weekend.
While there was a lot of worry about the Hammers’ chances in the Premier League ahead of the season kicking off, David Moyes’ men have been on a superb run that sees them sit fifth in the standings ahead of their showdown with Man United.
McAvennie is thoroughly impressed by what he’s seen from his former club so far this season and predicts their unbeaten run to extend to four matches against the Red Devils.
“West Ham are on a high so they can beat them,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone. “They’ve not got aspirations to win the league or anything like that but they’re doing alright for me. They’re doing better than I expected them to.
“I’ll put my hands up because in the first part of the season I thought ‘where are they going to get the points from in the first half-dozen games? Especially after losing to Newcastle’.
“But they’ve been different class. Well done to David and his team.
“I’m going to say 1-1.”
West Ham are one point and four places ahead of Man United going into this match so the result could have a big bearing on where the Irons sit in the standings by the end of the game week.
While the early-season table isn’t worth reading into that much, it just re-iterates how impresses the Irons’ start has been – especially with some of the top teams they’ve played.
Leicester, Tottenham and Manchester City have failed to beat the Hammers in the Premier League this season so what’s to say that Man United will be able to beat them too?
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have had a really mixed bag of results this term, losing to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Istanbul Basaksehir but beating Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig in Europe.
West Ham can win this. We don’t expect them to. But this is a winnable match so McAvennie’s 1-1 prediction is a reasonable shout.
In other West Ham news, Trevor Sinclair has been blown away by Vladimir Coufal’s impact at the London Stadium.