Manchester United faced a West Ham side who had won three of their previous five premier league matches. With an unusual kickoff time of 16:15, these two teams looking to get into Europe had to battle it out once again.
The first 10 minutes of the game didn’t provide much action, with the Red Devils dominating possession but looking like they were trying to figure out how to break down David Moyes’ team, who have only conceded nine goals from open play this season [WhoScored].
But for some part of the opening quarter of the game, United seemed to be too static as West Ham pressed so high the United attackers and midfielders weren’t dropping deep, which led to Maguire and Martinez trying to make the decisive passes which were hard to come by.
United had chances as the first half went on. However, there were more half chances due to how deep West Ham sat back and how resilient in defence they were. It seemed like Ronaldo and co had to go more down the wings than play through the middle of the Hammers, as United seemed very reliant, like in the last three games, on their wingers, which for this game were Elanga and Marcus Rashford.
Finally, after United kept probing West Ham with good pieces of play, a goal came. Eriksen, who received the ball on the right side, made a half-bounced cross to the arriving Rashford who powered over Thilo Kehrer to get his 100th goal for the club.
🫶 That’s what it means.
🔴 @MarcusRashford #MUFC || #MUNWHU pic.twitter.com/945akvwc6X
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 30, 2022
Erik Ten Hag’s men carried on dominating the ball at the start of the second half. Ronaldo and Rashford had two great chances but both were off-target.
As the game went on it seemed like West Ham had to put their authority on the game at some point and this came towards the latter stages of the match as David Dea was called into action multiple times, from an Antonio strike tipped over the bar by the Spaniard.
A Kurt Zouma effort was also brilliantly saved from a free kick, it almost seemed that De Gea, as well as stopping the goals from going in, it seemed like he wanted to send a message to the Spanish national team coach Luis Enrique, who didn’t pick United’s number one in his World Cup squad.
Fred combined from a McTominay cross which saw Fred head the ball into the bottom right corner only to be denied by the post, as United tried to hit on the break in the dying embers of the game.
The team from East London had one last opportunity to get a point from the game but was stopped by De Gea as Declan Rice struck a Lampard shot which saw United’s goalkeeper make a vital save that almost won the red side of Manchester the game.
Marcus Rashford talking about what is different this season:
“It’s a complete different energy around the club and the training ground. That puts me in a better headspace and I just feel really motivated now. That’s the area I was struggling in.” [Via Sky]