Tuesday, 23rd February 2010 – KO: 20:00

A highly unusual Premier League on Tuesday evening due to the fact that we have the Carling Cup Final on Sunday and this in itself is a bone of contention for me. Aston Villa (our Carling Cup Final opponents) do not have a midweek game but they have played one LESS game than us in the Premier League. Surely if anyone should be playing tonight, it should be them?

Oh well, if there is one saving grace about this fixture it is that the United players have the opportunity to vent some of the frustrations they must be feeling after the miserable performance against Everton on Saturday.

The bookies are in no doubt that United are going to win this one (as low as 1.18 in places and best priced 1.22). I can’t argue with that.

After over two weeks since the players last played at Old Trafford, they might just be glad to be back home.

Of course, a fair section of the crowd will feel that it is their duty to make the United players believe that they have landed in North Road, Newton Heath circa 1878 but that’s another story…

Our last three (League) home games have been against strugglers Burnley, Hull and Portsmouth and they finished 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0 respectively. It would be nice to keep the pattern going but I doubt we’re going to win this one 6-0!

However, the League is so tight this season that whilst West Ham currently find themselves in a respectable 13th position, they are just four points above the relegation zone and need a fair few more points yet before they can count themselves as “safe”. They are not exactly “strugglers” but they are not too far away from those who are.

Indeed, it has been their away form that has really let them down so far this season. Just one win (at Wolves on the opening day of the season) from their 13 away games is not great and they still have most of the “big guns” to play.

It must be said however that their general form has improved since the start of the year and perhaps their most impressive away result came against Aston Villa last month where they held Villa to a 0-0 draw.

In fact, this points to something that has become quite apparent in their recent results – they haven’t been scoring bucketloads but they have been conceding like a team that is traditionally associated with imminent relegation either. After a dodgy opening to the season, they do seem to be a slightly tougher nut to crack these days.

This, of course, leads me to wonder which United will turn up tonight? Will it be the one that has looked so dangerous in recent games and have scored a ton of goals or will it be the one that played against Everton where Everton could have played without a goalkeeper and still won?

There’s an old cliche that you’re only as good as your last game but I’d like to think that the performance against Everton was a blip borne of a team that momentarily lost focus and were still mentally in Milan and something nearer to the performances we have become accustomed to over the last couple of months will be what we see here tonight.

Of great interest is going to be our defence. Rio Ferdinand has now completed his ban and should step in for Brown or Evans but there also doesn’t seem to be any valid reason why Vidic won’t play tonight – unless some mysterious injury crops up again in the warm-up.

Whatever happens, I think Evans needs a rest. He looked as nervous as hell against AC Milan and still appeared to be shaking when he arrived at Everton. He’s been brilliant throughout the last couple of seasons and has let no one down when he has been called upon (which has probably been more often than anyone envisaged 18 months ago) but I think he needs a bit of space to get himself together again.

With both Rio and Vidic looking as injury-prone as a pair of osteoporitic stuntmen, his chance will come again sooner rather than later.

I think that changes at the back are 99% certain and the tricky part is determining just how many other changes Fergie will make.

It could be that Fletcher and/or Carrick will be rested and Anderson could come back in.

Will there be any changes up front? It is almost impossible to leave him out but a breather for Rooney is perhaps not totally out of the question here.

All this uncertainty surrounding Fergie’s team selection makes making a prediction tricky. I am being swayed by the idea that I think that Fergie will play a much-tinkered side (I might be completely wrong).

I think we will win the game but if Fergie tinkers too much then it might not be quite as easy as the odds suggest.

Either way though, West Ham are not conceding too many of late and will probably fancy their chances of at least limiting us to a couple of goals.

The bookies seem to think that this will be a high scoring game and whilst it wouldn’t be a major surprise, I think their prices are a bit out and I think there’s some value to be had in going for the Under market here.

The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.5 with Paddy Power.

Firstly I think I should apologise and clear something up that I mentioned in my pre-match blurb. Aston Villa have an FA Cup Replay against Crystal Palace tomorrow which I completely overlooked and explains why they aren’t playing a League game this week.

Fergie did indeed ring the changes for this one with Fletcher and Carrick both being rested to be replaced by Gibson and Anderson.

Evans was also replaced by Vidic and it was good to see Vidic back, the defence seemed a lot more composed with him in there.

There was some bad news on the Rio Ferdinand front though as he apparently felt a twinge in his back earlier in the day and Fergie reckons it will mean that he won’t even be fit for the Carling Cup Final on Sunday.

Further bad news also came during the match when Anderson seemed to twist his knee or his ankle when playing the ball and his comeback was halted with less than 20 minutes played.

The referee for this one was Alan Wiley who hasn’t been seen at Old Trafford since the Sunderland game earlier in the season which prompted Fergie to suggest that he wasn’t fit enough. Is it my imagination or does Wiley look like he has lost a few pounds since then?

Anyway, this game followed a similar pattern to the game we played against West Ham at their place where they held us at bay until almost half time but we picked them off to eventually run out comfortable 4-0 winners.

This game looked like it was going to end with a low scoreline as both defences were getting the better of the attackers and intercepting the final balls over and over again.

Our opener came from a stunning passing move where the ball didn’t even touch the ground. Berbatov floated a neat pass across to Valencia who would normally bring the ball down, take a look and cross it in low. This time he hit it first time on the volley and Rooney only had to stoop to power home the header.

It was a completely different build up to what West Ham had become accustomed to and it seemed to completely take their defence by surprise with its execution.

So, we were up 1-0 at half-time and looking pretty comfortable.

Fergie must have put something in the half time drinks though because we came out like a rocket and Park was unlucky to see his effort come back off the crossbar after just twenty seconds of the restart.

We didn’t have to wait too long for the second though as (again) a lovely pass from Berby put Valencia through who crossed in for Rooney to head home yet again.

The game again went into a bit of a lull after that and after around 78 minutes, Fergie obviously decided that we were coasting and so brought off Berby and Rooney and sent on Diouf and Owen.

Within two minutes, Owen scored a lovely goal following a great piece of movement and a through ball from Scholes.

So, the final score was 3-0 and United really won at something of a canter here.

It sounds a bit stupid to say after conceding three goals but West Ham’s defence looked generally pretty decent but they do look a bit toothless up front and Foster was rarely troubled.

As for us, we go again within a point of Chelsea although we have played a game more. The next game is the Carling Cup Final and I think Fergie’s team selection here tonight has given plenty of clues as to who will be playing in that one on Sunday.