MANCHESTER UNITED are back at Old Trafford as they welcome Champions League hopefuls West Ham.

Ralf Rangnick's side survived a first-half scare against Brentford in midweek before eventually running out 3-1 winners in the capital.

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West Ham meanwhile are enjoying a superb season but will want to get back to winning ways after a home defeat to Leeds.

When is Man Utd vs West Ham?

• United welcome the Hammers on Saturday, January 22.
• Kick-off is at 3pm GMT.
• You can follow all the action right here with our live blog below from 1.30pm.

Which TV channel and live stream can I watch it on?

Unfortunately this match will not be shown on TV here in the UK.

It falls in the blanket ban on football TV coverage between 2.45pm and 5.15pm.

The ban is designed to protect attendances throughout the footbal pyramid.

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What is the team news?

Scott McTominay was taken off with a knock against Brentford but looks set to feature here.

Both Paul Pogba and Eric Bailly are unavailable, while Luke Shaw and Edinson Cavani are doubts.

Cristiano Ronaldo was unimpressed at being hauled off after 70 minutes in West London, but will almost certainly start again at the weekend.

Thomas Soucek could be back from Covid-19 isolation for the visitors, with Mark Noble still sidelined by a knee problem.

Match odds

• Man Utd to win – 9/10
• Draw – 9/5
• West Ham victory – 3/1

*All odds from Betfair and correct at time of publication.

• Nyle Smithjust now

  On Manchester United’s treatment table

  Ralf Rangnick could potentially have as many as nine key members missing for the huge top four clash against the Hammers this afternoon.

  The interim boss has confirmed that both full-backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw will continue to be unavailable. Also, their defensive counterpart Victor Lindelof will sit this one out having mentioned to the Rangnick that ‘he doesn’t want to leave his wife and family on their own’ following a terrifying home invasion and Eric Bailly is away on international duties at the African Cup of Nations.

  Looking further forward on the field, back issues forced Scott McTominay into a premature ending for the 3-1 victory over Brentford which means the Scotland international is a doubt and this game has come too soon for Paul Pogba who hasn’t featured for United since the beginning of November.

  In terms of attacking options, Jadon Sancho is still in need of some time off due to personal reasons, Edison Cavani’s muscle injury ruled him out of the midweek trip to London so this game may also be off the cards and now Cristiano Ronaldo making a second consecutive Premier League start is in jeopardy because it has emerged that the Portuguese talisman sustained a neck problem last Wednesday.

  Rangnick’s exact words on the 4x Ballon d’Or winner in Friday’s pre-match press conference were: “Cristiano is a question mark because he has a problem with his neck. He received treatment for 2-3 hours and we will have to wait to see how it feels today.”

• Nyle Smitha minute ago

  Manchester United’s trail of results

  The recent Premier League run hasn’t been the greatest for Man United as they have dropped points in games where they were expected to win.

  Ralf Rangnick’s men were torn apart by Wolves at Old Trafford in a match where the visitors should have scored more and then they surrendered a two goal lead at Aston Villa in the league a couple of weeks ago which left the supporters furious.

  But prior, the interim boss had gone unbeaten in five which included progression to the round of 16 in the Champions League and scraping past Villa to get into the fourth round of the FA Cup.

  In addition to that, the Red Devils immediately bounced back with a fine performance away at Brentford, scoring three goals in the process to snatch all three points.

• Nyle Smitha minute ago

  Starring the Theatre Of Dreams

  A stadium such as Old Trafford deserves Champions League football which is why it hosted the 2002-03 final albeit being between Italian giants Juventus and AC Milan.

  Well today is not a cup final but the 75,000 fans who will be in attendance may treat it like on especially with what is on the line today.

  The home of Manchester United is the biggest club footballing stadium in England and it truly has had some heroes bless that amazing field.

  

• Nyle Smith4 minutes ago

  Bruno Fernandes’ stats so far

  With a lot more games yet to play in the season, Bruno Fernandes has the ability to improve on his goal contributions and fire United to success.

  But will the Portuguese playmaker be able to continue this good recent run of form?

  Below are some of his numbers in the 2021/22 Premier League campaign so far.

  

• Nyle Smith6 minutes ago

  The situation is bruing up

  One of the main reasons why Manchester United got into the top four last season is because of another certain Portuguese attacking outlet.

  In the 2020/21 campaign, Bruno Fernandes had a staggering 45 goal contributions scoring 28 and assisting 17 in all competitions. The midfield maestro also won Man United’s player of the month award four times in 2020 and became the first player in the clubs history to win Premier League Player of the Month and Goal of the Month concurrently.

  However, the summer additions and the changes in the system have brought his progress to a halt. Bruno doesn’t seem to have the free role he was used to for the whole of the last campaign which has led to the Portuguese international only scoring 7 goals and creating 11 assists domestically and in the league.

  In addition to that, Fernandes is having off-field contractual issues because according to reports, the 27-year-old has snubbed a new offer to stay at the club unless his earning are similar to fellow country-man Cristiano Ronaldo who earns four times his salary which is approximately £480,000 a week.

  Fernandes has had four goal contributions in his last two games; scoring two against Aston Villa and assisting two in the 3-1 romp over Brentford but should he provide a couple more huge moments in a game with a magnitude such as today, the hierarchy’s stance on the contract situation might change.

• Nyle Smith7 minutes ago

  Race for the top four

  When Manchester United confirmed the triple signing of Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo, their expectancy levels of clinching a title for the first time since 2012 went through the roof, but now, it is still up in the air as to whether they will even make the top four.

  Despite the Red Devils only being one victory away from getting into a top four spot, they have lost a lot of points from winning positions which could turn out pivotal in their quest for where they hope to end the campaign.

  On the other hand, West Ham have been flirting with held onto fourth spot for large parts large parts of the season which not many would have predicted on match-day one, but with their Europa League campaign set to restart in February, David Moyes’ side could struggle with the amount of games they’ll have to play.

  What makes it more intriguing is that Arsenal could be a couple of signings away from securing the final spot, Spurs have games in hand and Wolves cannot be discredited either with their recent flurry of wins so that’s five teams battling it out to get into Europe’s top club competition.

  Today’s result between Man United and West Ham could be crucial people so make sure to stay tuned because you don’t want to miss out on any of the action.

• Nyle Smith7 minutes ago

  Man United lost the Manuel

  For those who didn’t get a chance to see Manuel Lanzini’s goal described in the previous post, the West Ham Twitter account admin has been kind enough to share it with us.

  Enjoy!

• Nyle Smith9 minutes ago

  Last time at Old Trafford

  The Red Devils have come out victorious over West Ham in the last two league encounters but it was the Hammers who had the last laugh during an EFL cup fixture back in September.

  David Moyes’ side were fired up from the opening whistle denying United of a moment’s rest and this pressure paid off when a well-executed low cross from Ryan Fredricks found Manuel Lanzini lurking in the penalty area for a tap-in with only nine minutes gone on the clock.

  And the frustration for a full Old Trafford didn’t end there because a couple minutes later, Jesse Lingard seemed to have been dragged down in the box by Mark Noble but referee Jon Moss didn’t believe that the contact was enough to reward the hosts with a penalty.

  Cristiano Ronaldo also felt the same emotions as Lingard when the 4x Ballon d’Or winner witnessed his two penalty appeals being rejected but that would have all been forgotten about had Mason Greenwood not spurned his one-on-one opportunity presented to him less than 30 minutes from full-time.

  United running out of time and ideas led to desperation which meant them throwing players forward in attempt to grab the equaliser but West Ham stood firm and were successful in their revenge mission having lost to the Red Devils only three days before.

• Nyle Smith9 minutes ago

  Here are Betfair’s latest odds

  Man Utd to win – 11/10

  Draw – 13/5

  West Ham to win – 5/2

  *Odds from Betfair are correct at the time of publication.

• Nyle Smith9 minutes ago

  How the league table looks

  The midweek 3-1 victory at the Community Stadium has put Manchester United right back in the race for those prestigious Champions League spots and if results were to go their way, Ralf Rangnick’s side could potentially end the weekend in fourth place.

  However, the Hammers will be aware that a win for them today would not only maintain their league positioning, but it will open up a slight gap between themselves and the Red Devils which is quite the incentive going into this encounter.

  

• Nyle Smith14 minutes ago

  Welcome to Manchester United vs West Ham United

  Good afternoon SunSport family. I hope you are all staying safe, wrapping up warm and protecting yourselves from the multiple variants of Covid-19 out there.

  Normally at this stage of the season, the table begins to take shape and teams start to have a brief idea as to where they could finish come May, however, the two sides featuring in today’s blog still have so much to play for which sets it up to be a mouth-watering fixture.

  West Ham United will be travelling up north to take on Manchester United at Old Trafford with the prize of being a step closer to one of those prestigious Champions League spots.

  You can almost sense a feeling of frustration and disappointment amongst the Red Devils camp especially during the 1-0 to loss to Wolves a couple of weeks ago and when Man United let a 2-0 lead slip at Villa Park last weekend, it left fans questioning if Ralf Rangnick is the saviour we all thought he could be, but they did convincingly deal with Brentford in their last league outing which was a massive three points in regards to the top four hunt.

  As for the Hammers, they are continuing to go strong in what could turn out to be a phenomenal season, but David Moyes’ side hit a major bump in the road last Sunday when they lost 3-2 at home to a Leeds side who before that game, hadn’t secured consecutive victories all campaign.

  Fancy keeping tabs on whether one of these clubs will take the upper-hand in that race for the top four? Then look no further because coming up we will the gossip, injury reports and the starting eleven's all before kick-off at 15:00 UK time.

• James Orr14 minutes ago

  What Cristiano Ronaldo said

  Ralf Rangnick has once again insisted that he made the right call in taking Cristiano Ronaldo off at Brentford.

  Ronaldo threw a major strop after he was hooked with Mason Greenwood for Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire.

  United were 2-0 up and Rashford quickly made it 3-0 before Brentford got a late one back.

  Manager Rangnick wanted to make a change to avoid what happened at Villa Park the previous weekend when they surrendered a 2-0 lead.

  Rangnick said: "The job of a football manager is to help teams win games and, for me, it was clear after the experience we had at Villa Park that this time we had to do things better.

  "The only question was who we take off. Cristiano is a prolific goal scorer and a player who always wants to play and score goals.

  "He was also asking ‘why me not one of the younger players?"

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