Wayne Rooney to Bounce Back

Wayne Rooney

Manchester United take on West Ham United at Old Traf­ford on Sat­urday, hav­ing the edge over their vis­it­ors in pre­vi­ous meet­ings. Manchester United have taken four points from their open­ing two league matches, beat­ing New­castle United 3–0 at home before draw­ing 2–2 to Ful­ham at Craven Cot­tage last Sunday. Hav­ing fallen to heavy defeats at Aston Villa and at home to Bolton in their open­ing two matches, West Ham are still without a single point so far. Although Rio Ferdin­and is still out, Wayne Rooney will return for Manchester United after recov­er­ing from stom­ach pains.

Manchester United may be over-reliant on Wayne Rooney, but to Old Traf­ford reg­u­lars he is merely the best player in the world. Nev­er­the­less, the Eng­land inter­na­tional is likely to be des­per­ate to net his first goal since injur­ing him­self dur­ing the away game against Bay­ern Munich in the Cham­pi­ons League quarter-final last sea­son. How­ever, the weight of his­tory is on the side of Manchester United as West Ham United have a very poor record against the Reds at Old Traf­ford in recent years. If stat­ist­ics are any­thing to go by, the Upton Park play­ers will no doubt be put to the test on Saturday.

Manchester United beat West Ham United 6–0 in the FA Cup Fourth Round in Janu­ary 2003.

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