OPINION
West Ham are playing Manchester United at the best possible time as their capable of heaping misery on their Premier League rivals if Manuel Pellegrini gets his team selection right.
Jose Mourinho’s side crashed out of the EFL Cup on Tuesday courtesy of Championship outfit Derby County and were only able to achieve a draw against Wolves in their last league outing.
The pressure seems to be mounting on Mourinho and his Man United side despite being in the early stages of the season as expectations for them are high.
The Hammers, who destroyed Macclesfield Town 8-0 on Wednesday in the EFL Cup, have seen their form recover after a terrible start to the campaign as they have avoided defeat in their last two league games.
Despite recording such an impressive win against Macclesfield in their last game, Pellegrini needs to axe eight players that started that clash in order to be able to inflict more misery on an already suffering Manchester United.
The Hammers boss must switch goalkeepers and replace Adrian with first-choice option Lukasz Fabianski in his first change before also dropping Aaron Cresswell and Angelo Ogbonna.
Arthur Masuaku must replace Cresswell at left-back while Ogbonna takes a place up on the bench in order for Fabian Balbuena to take his rightful place alongside Issa Diop, who started against Macclesfield, in the starting line-up.
Ryan Fredericks, who scored his first Hammers goal against Macclesfield, must keep his place in the team for the clash with Man Utd despite Pablo Zabaleta shining against Chelsea as the 25-year-old’s blistering pace will expose the right flank of Man Utd.
The speed demon should be able to cope with playing a wounded Man United and his speed could easily cause his opponent’s damage.
Pellegrini then needs to drop Carlos Sanchez, who hobbled off injured on Wednesday, Robert Snodgrass, Lucas Perez, Michail Antonio and Grady Diangana as despite the majority of them shining against their League Two opposition in the last outing, Pellegrini has better options.
Mark Noble and Declan Rice must join Pedro Obiang, who played on Wednesday, by taking up their usual positions in midfield with Rice playing a slightly deeper role.
While wing wizard Andriy Yarmolenko and Brazilian Felipe Anderson take up their places on either flank after impressing during the Chelsea game, both of this players have the skill set to bamboozle Man Utd’s defence.
Finally Antonio, who has started the last two games, losing his place to the Hammers’ star man Marko Arnautovic, who according to Claret & Hugh, is pain free and looking on course to be ready to play Mourinho’s side.
The forward is capable of causing any Premier League side nightmares and if truly pain free, should be able to score at least one against Man United in order to heap misery on them while achieving a positive result for his side.
In total that means Pellegrini has to axe eight players from the side that started against Macclesfield and start the likes of Fredericks as well as Yarmolenko in order to make Man United’s troubles continue.
