Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson is expecting West Ham to suffer a narrow defeat when they face Manchester United at Old Trafford this evening.

Despite some good recent performances, Merson believes that the Hammers could just lose out in a very tight contest:

“West Ham are a funny team and can be hard to beat, but they haven’t got going yet this season. They can hurt you as they did with Liverpool, and this could be one of those games where the West Ham of last season turns up. On current form, however, I don’t see it. Man United are playing really well – the football’s good, the energy’s good, and I think they’ll win this game.”

Merson has gone with a 2-1 win to the home side, which is not an unreasonable prediction, considering the Red Devils are in pretty decent form.

They have taken four points from matches against Spurs and Chelsea recently so West Ham will certainly have to be at their very best to get anything from the game today.

Erik ten Hag’s side have, though, been rather inconsistent on their own patch. They have lost to Brighton and drawn versus Newcastle this season, which may suggest they struggle against teams who sit back and play on the counter-attack. Irons boss David Moyes may look to use that weakness to his advantage.