United seek League Cup ‘revenge’ Walcott targets more goals
MANCHESTERRMANCHESTER United midfielder Ander Herrera says his side will be out for "revenge" when they welcome West Ham United back to Old Trafford in the League Cup quarterfinals today.
West Ham held Herrera and his teammates to a 1-1 draw on Sunday in a Premier League match that saw United manager Jose Mourinho sent to the stands for angrily kicking a water bottle.
United have made their worst start to a league season since 1989, drawing their last four home games, and Herrera warned Slaven Bilic's West Ham players to brace themselves for a backlash.
"It's positive that we are playing on Wednesday, when we can get revenge. We can turn our luck in the next game in the EFL Cup," said the Spaniard, who won the FA Cup with United last season.
"It doesn't matter the competition, it doesn't matter the game; we just want to win. We want to fight for everything and we want to make our fans proud.
"West Ham are a good side — it is not easy to stop them creating chances. They have (Manuel) Lanzini, they have (Diafra) Sakho, they have (Dimitri) Payet, they have (Michail) Antonio. They have very good players.
"But they just created two chances in the whole game. We were the dominant team, so hopefully on Wednesday we can create as many chances as we did (on Sunday) and normally we should win."
United will be without midfielders Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini through suspension.
Having started on the bench against West Ham on Sunday, captain Wayne Rooney will hope to return to the starting XI as he chases a record-equalling 249th United goal.
Arsenal will have a spring in their step ahead of their home game with Southampton, also on Wednesday, after ending a run of three successive draws by beating Bournemouth 3-1 on Sunday.
But Southampton were also bolstered by a positive weekend result, having consigned former manager Ronald Koeman to a 1-0 defeat on his return to St Mary's with Everton.
"I felt it played a little bit on the confidence of the team when you do not win for three games," admitted Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who has never lifted the League Cup. ARSENAL forward Theo Walcott is eager to continue his rich vein of form by scoring 10 goals before Christmas, which he plans to celebrate y receiving a coffee machine as a gift from his wife.
The England international scored in Sunday's 3-1 Premier League victory over Bournemouth to take his tally up to nine goals in 15 appearances this season.
"I want to get 10 (goals) so I can get a coffee machine for Christmas from my wife. She said 'if you get 10 goals before Christmas I'll buy you this coffee machine'," Walcott told British media.
"So I can't wait for that and hopefully it will happen. Coming from the wing as well, I'm obviously delighted with my goals so far. There's been a lot of ups and downs but hopefully... we're back to the level we want to be at."
Winger Alexis Sanchez has excelled since moving b
"Suddenly, there's questions. 'Why do we not win?' And the fluency goes a bit. These three points (against Bournemouth) will help us."
Meanwhile, Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho is set to make a shock move to bring his into a central role this season, having scoring 10 goals in 18 appearances, and Walcott has said that he had also benefited from the Chile international's positional shift.
"Obviously me and Alexis are having a very good relationship at this moment in time. At the start of the season we created a lot of goals for each other and everything was happening," Walcott said.
"But Alexis has definitely stepped up to making this position. I think he's enjoying it. I can see the smile he's playing with. He even did an interview today in English, which he never does."
Arsenal are fourth in the table on 28 points, three behind leaders Chelsea after 13 games.
The Gunners host Southampton in the quarterfinals of the League Cup on Wednesday before travelling to face London rivals West Ham United in the league three days later. — Reuters
former midfielder, Mikel John Obi to Old Trafford from Chelsea.
Super Eagles captain, Mikel, has not played under new Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte and there are no plans to renew his contract which runs out this season.
The Sun reports that Mourinho is ready to take advantage of the situation with a cut-price New Year offer for the Nigeria international midfielder the Red Devils thought they had signed 10 years ago.
Mikel had just turned 19 when the Old Trafford outfit announced on their website that they had signed him on a four-year contract from Norwegian club FC Lyn-Oslo.
The £4 million transfer was done directly with the player and his club — bypassing his agents and he was even pictured in a United shirt.
But Chelsea angrily claimed they had an agreement with the agents to buy him.
Things turned nasty when it was reported Mikel started to get threatening phone calls and ended up having to take refuge in a safe hotel with a security guard.
He then went missing from Lyn amid stories he had been kidnapped.
The matter was resolved when Chelsea paid United £12 million and FC Lyn-Oslo £4 million.