Seventh-placed Manchester United host 17th-placed West Ham United with their morale boosted by a crunch win at Crystal Palace. Ruben Amorim's side will be desperate to regain the kind of form that saw them go unbeaten in five before the loss to 10-man Everton at home.
West Ham saw a three-game unbeaten run of their own come to an end against defending champions Liverpool, and they will be looking to get back on their bike as the teams ready themselves for the busy festive period. Recent head-to-head form favours West Ham (who have won three of the last four vs. Man United) but this season's form is clearly stacked in the home side's favour and they will be favourites heading into the fixture.
Meanwhile, Amorim will have a personal record at stake in the match (and the next four games at Old Trafford). Having lost nine of the 19 Premier League matches at Old Trafford since he took over, he'll be desperate to avoid becoming the fastest United manager to suffer 10 home top division losses since AH Albut lost 10 in 23 between 1892 and 1894.
Here we look at five key talking points ahead of the match:
Will Zirkzee keep his place?
Joshua Zirkzee had a tough start at Selhurst Park on the weekend after being thrust into the starting XI in place of the injured Matheus Cunha. He appeared to struggle to get into games and looked off his teammates' wavelengths... until it clicked into place in the second half. The goal he scored was as audacious as it was skillful and his overall performance was one that drew rare praise from his manager. Despite dovetailing well with Mason Mount and Bryan Mbuemo, he now has to contend with a possibly returning-to-fitness Matheus Cunha.
Zirkzee isn't a natural No. 9, preferring to drop deep and link play more than a typical Amorim centre-forward. But taking him out of the lineup could come at the cost of crucial confidence ahead of a busy period where United will lose Mbuemo and Amad to AFCON duties. Should Amorim choose to keep the Dutchman up top, he'll face another hard choice: Mount vs Cunha. Mount. who took the winning goal so smartly against Palace, is exactly the kind of No. 10 that Amorim likes to have in his 3-2-4-1.
We know he won't change his system (not even the Pope can make him do that after all), but will Amorim stick with the forward line from the weekend? Or will he rejig it to find a place for Cunha?
The Casemiro dilemma
This season, when Casemiro plays, Man United are usually decent. When he doesn't, they're invariably bad. The Brazilian midfield enforcer has had to use all his oodles of experience (and a much-increased intensity compared to last season) to keep the under-loaded midfield protected while simultaneously helping Bruno Fernandes with the job of moving the team further up the pitch.
The numbers tell you a story. In the 748 minutes Casemiro has been on the pitch (taking only full 90s into account), Man United have conceded seven goals. In the 422 he was off it, they've conceded 14 (this includes two games he didn't play at all). There are, of course, other factors in play here, but watch United with and without Casemiro and the difference in defensive solidity becomes immediately apparent.
The thing with Casemiro, though, is that at 32 (and even with his newly improved fitness) three matches in nine days (including Wolves on Monday night) might be too much. If Amorim were to rotate, the two options in his role are Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo, neither of whom are like-for-like in terms of defensive awareness and sheer match experience.
Mainoo -- whose exclusions from the starting XIs all season long has been at the centre of much debate and whose lockpicking skills might prove useful against a deep-set West ham -- might finally get the nod if Amorim were to rest Casemiro. But that would leave his central midfield woefully light against West Ham's big hitters.
For Amorim, it's quite the dilemma.
How will West Ham set up in Paqueta's absence?
2x 4-1-4-1
2x 4-2-3-1
1x 4-3-3
2x 3-4-3
1x 4-5-1
Unlike his opposite number, Nuno Esperito Santo hasn't been afraid to mix-and-match formations as he looks to make the most of the squad available to him. As you can see above, in his eight games in charge, he's used five different formations (even if the tweaks have been minor) but what's common is that Lucas Paqueta has been the hub around which each system has been designed.
Except for one game (the 2-2 draw at Bournemouth that he missed due to yellow-card-accumulation suspension), Paqueta has been Nuno's key attacking cog and how he will deal with the Brazilian's absence at Old Trafford will be telling. At Bournemouth, he chose to go 3-4-3 and start the match with intensity and that might be the blueprint he follows against a team who have often failed to deal well with teams that start with high intensity.
In the longer term, meanwhile, Paqueta is one for Nuno to keep a sharp eye on. The red card he received against Liverpool appeared to be wholly unnecessary (booked twice in quick succession for complaining to the referee) and afterwards he posted on X where he said, among other things, "I'm sorry if I'm not perfect."
At the pre-match news onference, Esperito Santo said: "He's not OK. He is suffering, he is disappointed and upset. He realises the mistake that he made, and he is willing to move forward. Sometimes people are not aware of the problems that football players endure."
Will a low block frustrate United... again?
Everyone knows how Nuno loves to set up his teams -- compact, sitting deep and ready to strike on the counter. Everyone also knows that's the exact template that Amorim's United have struggled to deal with in his year at the helm.
It's not just the eye test that confirms the latter -- in the seven matches (all competitions) this season where United have had more than 50% of the possession, their record reads: 2W, 4L, 1D (including the Grimsby shootout loss). The two wins that they did get come with caveats -- one was this weekend against a Crystal Palace side that were dead on their feet in the second half (and were guilty of profligate finishing in the first), and the other came via a 97th minute penalty against Burnley at Old Trafford.
That this weakness plays into Nuno's greatest strengths is what the beleaguered manager will be hoping leads to him making it 3 - 0 against his compatriot (his Nottingham Forest side beat United 3-2 and 1-0 last season).
Freddie Potts' fight is exactly what West Ham and Nuno need
Nuno gave Freddie Potts (son of Hammers veteran Steve) his first senior start for his boyhood club against Newcastle United and was immediately repaid with a display of controlled aggression in midfield that won him a man of the match award and Nuno his first win with West Ham (1D, 3L before that).
It kickstarted a mini resurgence that was ended by Liverpool on Sunday, but Potts started, and starred, in both their subsequent win against Burnley and draw at Bournemouth. In that three-game period, he made more forward passes (42), successful long passes (9) and crunched into more tackles (9) than any West Ham outfielder.
The 22-year-old who joined the West Ham academy aged six brought to midfield the kind of fight and directness that they had been sorely lacking at the start of the season. He's also exactly the kind of player Manchester United have struggled to deal with under Amorim's 2-man central midfield system -- and his direct physicality and calm on the ball could prove the difference between another loss or West Ham pulling off something special at Old Trafford on Thursday night,