IGNOBLE
West Ham 1 Manchester United 2
One minute of deafening applause for one of England’s greatest strikers preceded the action of this match. Jimmy Greaves has died this very morning, aged 81. An unsurpassed international career of 44 England goals in just 57 appearances still looks like a goal per game average that no one will ever equal. He even managed a couple of years in a West Ham shirt (1970, 1971) in a swap plus cash for another England great, Martin Peters. Whenever he was fed the ball as a lone striker, Greaves often made it look at times as though he had the ball on a piece of string, only abandoning it once he had run the length of half the pitch, rolling the ball gently past the keeper and into the net, something he did many, many times.
Last season West Ham were victims of a rare failing of VAR, in its blind spot in their home fixture against Manchester United, which ended in a 1-3 home defeat. Having led at the interval, Dean Henderson’s long curling clearance after a sustained West Ham second attack saw the ball curl out of play as it was hit downfield. The referee and onfield players all missed its true trajectory, Paul Pogba hit an equaliser from the break, and United went on to win 3-1.
So, it’s a game with recent history. Indeed the last time West Ham beat Manchester United was when the Reds were under José Mourinho’s stewardship, in a pre-Moyes and pre-Covid moment. You’d have every reason to be cautious about this game if you were a West Ham United fan, and as a pre-fascist Morrissey might have put it, you’d be ‘not wrong’. Michail Antonio’s dismissal against Southampton meant Hammers had no recognised striker, only a bunch of fake nines.
Home debuts for Zouma and Vlašić gave the Hammers’ side a slightly unknown feel, but the first twenty minutes saw Hammers’ distribution and covering at its toppest notch, Rice, Zouma and Ogbonna all secure in their last line status. Both sides looked a little flummoxed and energy-sapped from their midweek European adventures, but the game came alive on the half hour when Saïd Benrahma collected the ball from Bowen after a cheeky back heel from Coufal, and Benrahma’s goalbound shot nestled in the opposite corner to the one intended, after a deflection off Varane.
Five minutes later and Manchester United were level, Fernandes’ clever chip putting Ronaldo in line one on one, and although Fabianski saved his first effort, Ronaldo neatly slotted home the rebound. A VAR cancellation scare proved unwarranted, as it was only Ronaldo’s arm that was offside. Fabianski kept a fierce shot out from Ronaldo six minutes later as Man United sensed a swing in the pace of the game. A minute later Cresswell slotted in a ball from the left to Vlašić, whose instant hit was whipped agonisingly over the bar. What a start that would have been to his Premier League career. There was very little extra to trouble the scorers before half time, however. It looked at this point like one of those games that both teams would be happy to take a point from, but I didn’t believe that for a moment.
Barely a minute into the second half, an error from Fornals let Fred loose to find Ronaldo, and only a brilliant save by Fabianski stopped the Portuguese wunderkind from giving Manchester United the lead. West Ham broke quickly from the move to the other end and Fornals flicked a Bowen cross just wide. Yarmolenko came on for Vlašić to give West Ham a little more bite in the final third, followed shortly by the bitter sweet appearance of Jesse Lingard, cheered at the London Stadium, on for Paul Pogba in the 73rd minute. Even then it looked just like a thoughtful gesture from the Manchester United manager, but in the 89th minute, one of the other substitutes Matic found Jesse Lingard loose in the area, and he sidestepped Zouma before hitting a sickeningly beautiful shot into the top corner past Fabianski. The maudlin expressions on the faces of West Ham supporters were beyond tragedy. How could this happen? Easily. This is Jesse Lingard, after all. This was the player they had wanted to keep after the many excellent performances he had fashioned at this ground and in West Ham colours. He did not celebrate the goal.
But, incredibly, it wasn’t all over. In the last minute of injury time Yarmolenko managed to create an unthinkable last chance opportunity for West Ham to achieve an unlikely injury time equaliser, with a right-footed cross into the United area. It clearly fooled Luke Shaw who must have thought the Ukrainian’s right foot was there purely to fill his trouser leg, and the England defender handled the ball, almost punching it away. VAR confirmed the event in slo-mo time, to the horror of Manchester United fans, already celebrating their away win in loud ringing vocal tones. But what’s this? Mark Noble preparing to come on as a substitute to take the penalty from the outstretched arms of on-field captain Declan Rice? This is West Ham, don’t forget. David Moyes must have missed England’s antics at the Euro 2020 final.
Mark Noble’s penalties, since his turning professional, have seen a strike rate of 38/42, the last of the missed four being against Burnley in December 2016, though he did score from the rebound on that occasion. As for his momentary adversary, De Gea hadn’t actually saved a penalty since April 2016, so something had to give in this extraordinary end to the match. From a West Ham point of view, it was to be either a gladiator’s success or a desperate disappointment of a decision. The crowd needed longer to prepare for such a momentous event, but were now even out of injury time. This would be it, a point or defeat.
The penalty was hit to De Gea’s left, but at a decent height, and the Spanish keeper guessed right and beat it away. The Russian roulette moment was over almost as quickly as it had arrived, as was the match. And while Noble reflected on the decision to enter the lions’ den, West Ham had to be content at the referee’s final whistle with the knowledge that they would be playing United again on Wednesday, in the Carabao Cup, this time at Old Trafford, but at least they’d have Michail Antonio back.
1 Lucasz Fabiański, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 28 Tomas Souček, 11 Nikola Vlašić, 8 Pablo Fornals, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Saïd Benrahma
Substitutes: 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 16 Mark Noble
Goalscorer: Saïd Benrahma
