Sunderland look for a third straight win, Koeman returns to Southampton and can Tottenham bounce back from their Champions League exit?
On the last day of the 2006-07 season Manchester United, who had won the title five days earlier, fielded a weakened side – Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were all left out of the starting XI – at Old Trafford against a West Ham team who needed at least a point to avoid relegation. Carlos Tevez, who was to join United a few weeks later, scored the only goal on the stroke of half-time. “They couldn’t have come to Old Trafford on a better day,” said Sir Alex Ferguson after the game. “We had already won the league and the edge was off our game.” There was also a 1-0 win in December 2001, against a wretchedly out-of-form United side that were completing a memorably horrific run of five defeats in seven league games. Those two games are the Hammers’ only highlights in a miserable run of top-flight visits to Old Trafford that now extends over 30 years and in which they have otherwise drawn once and lost 20 times. And now they must go there twice in four days, with Sunday’s match being followed by an EFL Cup quarter-final on Wednesday (in the same time period they have visited Old Trafford four times in cup competitions, losing two and winning one). With the Manchester double-header to be followed by games against Arsenal and Liverpool, stories this week suggesting “West Ham chiefs have started to consider their options should they feel forced to make a change” are not just unwelcome but almost cruel. After the visit to Anfield the Hammers have a less daunting run of four fixtures before the turn of the year and it would seem sensible to delay any judgment until they have been completed, which will helpfully coincide with the start of a new transfer window and, less helpfully, another game against Manchester United. SB
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