Key events
Half-time: West Ham 1-0 Manchester United
The sound of Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United signals half-time and it’s a 45 that will be recalled for a true keeping howler from David De Gea. The other news is that Manchester United aren’t very good at the moment while West Ham are better than they have been for a while.
45 min: More chaos in the Manchester United box. Benrahma comes inside, the danger is cleared. Did the ball come off Lindelof’s hand? The Hammers say so…VAR says no….Eriksen has a shot at the other end.
44 min: Philip Wainwright gets in touch: “I’m not an MU fan, but do think that DDG is the one keeper you’d want in your goal to save that top-corner bound effort. Would it be fair to say that he pulls off as many difficult/unlikely saves (that most other GKs would not be able to), thus negating the clangers?”
“On top of this, do you think the fact that MU are 16th in the table for chance conversion (and could very easily be 2-0 up already if their finishing wasn’t crap) would render his aberrations largely null and void?”
Good points well made, especially by this game so far.
43 min: Manchester United’s chance creation is not high. Wout Weghorst is no Teddy Sheringham, you’d fancy Teddy to find space and angles better than the Dutch dynamo. And Teddy’s 57 these days.
41 min: Declan Rice is playing well against one of his potential suitors. He’s been far better than last week when he was run rings round at Selhurst Park.
39 min: Rashford shoots from distance, about as far back as Benrahama was. He shoots wide. A replay of the De Gea mistake does the Spaniard no favours.
38 min: Chaos as Bruno and Paqueta smash into each other, and then the ball breaks. It takes a scuttling Rice to come back and clear the danger.
36 min: Malacia goes into the back of Bowen, and it’s an ugly tackle, and a bookable one, too. The first yellow card of the night.
34 min: Andrew Flintoff, our one, not that one: “When do promising players cease to be promising, where an error can be disregarded as something they will improve on, and become error-prone, because they’ve not improved and still commit errors? Asking for David de Gea a friend.”
33 min: John Powers gets in touch: “Liverpool fans this time last week: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. Liverpool fans right now: Remember Reds, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
32 min: Now, what can Ten Hag produce. The excuses have been rather prolific recently. Antony takes up the cudgels from the centre, hitting the post, and off Aguerd, whose part in it all was inadvertent.
30 min: West Ham fancy this now. De Gea, to his credit, reads this attack better and smothers the ball when Jarrod Bowen is galloping through.
29 min: That really was a catastrophe for David de Gea. And it could prove so costly. A player who once shone while others around him flopped has become a liability.
Goal! West Ham 1-0 Manchester United (Benrahma, 27)
Oh my, you’d have to say Alfred Stewart, fifth on the all-time United keepers’ list, would do flamin’ better than that. The ball is hit with little venom and creeps in. The worst thing you can say that it is not exactly uncharacteristic from the Spaniard. Benrahma took the shot on and his luck came in.
25 min: Antony shoots, and Ogbonna’s bonce gets in the way. Those always look like they’d hurt.
24 min: Luke Shaw’s tackle on the halfway line stops a wildcat West Ham attack just when Paqueta looked to have Antonio barrelling in on goal.
22 min: West Ham seem to have weathered the storm that they faced in the opening 20 minutes, while also looking dangerous.
20 min: West Ham decide to enjoy possession for a moment. Rice sits deep and interchanges, and eventually Antonio runs to the line, and keeps it in. Eventually, the danger is cleared. The ball was yards behind and yet the ref played on.
18 min: Rashford hits the outside of the post, coming in from *his* position and smashing at goal. Fabianski was beaten. The post was not.
17 min: Panic as Benrahma’s ball fizzes across the box, Antonio hunting it down, Malacia chasing it away.
15 min: Feels like one of those games where you wonder how effective Manchester United might be with a striker. This time, Eriksen, not usually a bad finisher, is laid up by Antony but misses.
14 min: Bruno is the wild card here, drifting in and out, and Eriksen and Casemiro are passing in their little triangles.
12 min: West Ham at least look like they can hold their shape, but it will be Benrahama and Antonio – and Bowen – who will be asked to chase down channels.
10 min: What a miss from Antony, after dominance of possession from his team. Weghorst lays him up and he drives wide. Erik ten Hag is none too impressed.
7 min: Paqueta, so much improved from early season, tries to set away Antonio…and then Antony breaks, and instead of shooting, the ball is left for Fernandes to shoot wide. It’s breathless stuff so far. That was so close, just a whisker past the post.
6 min: Wan-Bissaka’s ball to the back post is headed away by Kehrer, with Bruno Fernandes surging on. The touch took it away.
4 min: Antonio, in usual style, presses up at the front. Maybe De Gea’s dodgy kicking being targeted? Declan Rice then surges on, and it’s Wout Weghorst who runs back to make the tackle.
3 min: And it’s all West Ham, piling forward, nice passes, and the visitors have to hack clear, and suddenly Rashford is away. At the other end, Benrahma took too long over a cross to the back post. A decent start so far.
1 min: They are away at the London Stadium, rolling with Sunday night cheers. It’s been a warm, sunny day in London. And plenty of chance for lubrication has been taken on.
Ten Hag and David Moyes shared quite a chat before kick-off….as expected, the National Anthem rings out loudly, with former Ireland international Declan Rice really looking into the Coronation vibe.
Quick pre-match quotes, speaking to BT Sport.
David Moyes: “It’s a bit of an unusual kick-off time in this country. It’s a really important game for us. We have to try and put Manchester United under pressure. We need to try and get something out of it.”
Christian Eriksen: “The temperature is still the same as any other game. We haven’t really spoken about it [Liverpool closing the gap to one point]. We’re just concentrating on ourselves. It’s always a tough game against West Ham. Every Premier League game is tough at the moment.”
Big game in the top-four/title race just now. Louise Taylor reports from St James’ Park.
Manchester City may be a point ahead at the top of the Premier League table with a game in hand but Arteta’s side are not about to surrender their title challenge just yet – and certainly not after coming through a significant test of character and courage on Tyneside with flying colours.
Big day for David de Gea, but how good would he be at running Summer Bay’s flamin’ surf club?
West Ham find themselves involved in a fight they really don’t want to be involved with.
West Ham: P 34, Pts 34, GD -13
Preparation for Wednesday’s defeat at the Etihad was hampered by a stomach bug, which made a change from generally being out of form and easy to beat. After the team finished seventh last season, Hammers fans would have hoped to build on such success but have been stuck in a battle to be the fourth-worst team in the league. Despite the struggles David Moyes has kept his job, aided by a Europa Conference League semi-final run and a lack of alternatives. Time is running out for him but finishing in the bottom three would be a sad end he is desperate to avoid.
Last four results (most recent first): L L L W. Remaining fixtures: Manchester United (h), Brentford (a), Leeds (h), Leicester (a).
United’s run-in is relatively kind and it would take some stumble for them to be overhauled in the race for fourth, but a defeat at West Ham coupled with Liverpool and Brighton continuing to win would make things more nervy.
“We need to be there, in the Champions League,” Ten Hag said. “We want to be there because we want to challenge the best teams in the world so we do everything in our power to get that done.”
For West Ham, Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Nayef Aguerd are back from sickness, with fans favourite Said Benrahma selected ahead of Pablo Fornals.
For Manchester United, Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen and Wout Weghorst coming in for Anthony Martial, Fred and Diogo Dalot. Alejandro Garnacho is also fit to return to the bench after an ankle problem, and that’s a big boost to United’s run to the end of the season.
Here are the teams
West Ham: Fabianski, Kehrer, Ogbonna, Aguerd, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Benrahma, Antonio. Subs: Johnson, Fornals, Lanzini, Downes, Areola, Cornet, Ings, Emerson Palmieri, Anang.
Man Utd: de Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Shaw, Malacia, Eriksen, Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, Antony, Weghorst, Rashford. Subs: Maguire, Martial, Sabitzer, Fred, Dalot, Sancho, Butland, Williams, Garnacho.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Preamble
The ever popular Sunday night kick-off beckons, and it’s an important match for both teams. Neither team is where they’d like to be, with Manchester United having resurgent Liverpool on their tail for the race for fourth place, and West Ham tottering over the survival line. Both lost their last match, United in the 99th minute to Brighton while the Hammers lost 4-3 to Crystal Palace in a match they had no right to be so close in then actually ran Manchester City closer next time, only to fold after half-time. The Hammers have a very leaky defence, their visitors are struggling to score goals.
Manchester United last lost at the London Stadium in September 2019, pandemic days. Both managers have Europe in mind; Erik ten Hag because making the Champions League was a big part of his remit and David Moyes has the Conference League in mind. Winning that may revalidate Moyes after what has been a poor season for West Ham. Beating his former club could add validation and cause them big trouble, too.
Kick-off 7pm, London spring time. Join me.