THE DEVILS YOU KNOW
Manchester United 1 West Ham 0
Cristiano Ronaldo needs two goals to reach a career total of 500 before his team’s game against West Ham. Something suggests he will still need two more, ninety minutes from now. Michail Antonio himself is one away from his personal century. Now that might also be tougher, especially given he’s not starting this afternoon.
Manchester United have won 7 of their last 9 games, but then West Ham have won 6 of their last 8. Both sides have only lost once each in those runs.The winner today will be the team that adjusts most quickly to the warm but wet conditions.
Manchester United have a few headers on target early on, but Fabianski is well positioned for all of them. Even when he isn’t, Souček, and then Kehrer, come to the rescue. Rice is on show in this exhibition match, and Hammers are looking plausible point takers in this game for much of the first half hour. Thilo Kehrer on a run links with Bowen at the end of it, but the England striker has his shot blocked and is, in any case, offside.
Hammers’ miserable away form this season includes two penalties missed and has been the main reason why they are currently mid table. Marcus Rashford arrives late to head Eriksen’s great curling cross high into the net in the final five minutes of the half, to douse Hammers’ optimism from their efforts in the first 45.
Hard to see just what Hammers can do to start improving their away form, but other than this game and a dead rubber of a Europa Conference League fixture in Romania there is no other chance of improving it before the World Cup Premier League break.
Scamacca, having copped a yellow in the first half for a striker’s defensive tackle in his own box, is fortunate not to get a red for a high kicking effort early on, and is sacrificed for Antonio in the 55th minute, so maybe that century career goal is still on.
Closest of all in the dying minutes is Zouma whose brilliant header is clawed away by De Gea, just minutes after Antonio has also forced him into tipping one over. Then Bowen’s flicked effort is knocked off the line by MacGuire, and a brilliant twenty yarder from Rice is tipped around the post by De Gea in injury time. Manchester United have somehow managed to keep West Ham out despite being second best for most of the half.
The irony of all ironies is that at the end, on the eve of his twenty-fifth birthday, it’s Marcus Rashford who scores his hundredth goal for Manchester United, becoming only the 22nd in the club’s history to reach that milestone. I guess I forgot about him in the first paragraph of this report. That now seems a long way away…
West Ham. Supporting this team has always been the effort of a lifetime. So many disappointments, but always worth it for games like Lyon and the home wins over Liverpool and Chelsea last season. There will be much much more. This is a great squad, and when that final third is negotiated, the points and trophies will arrive.
I lm the meantime I am now moving to the study to grab my passport in preparation for the final Europa Conference League fixture in Bucharest this Thursday. Even a dead rubber currently looks appealing after this afternoon’s disappointment.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 15 Craig Dawson, 24 Thilo Kehrer, 12 Flynn Downes, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 28 Tomas Souček, 41 Declan Rice (captain), 20 Jarrod Bowen, 7 Gianluca Scamacca
Substitutes: 13 Alphonse Ariola, 9 Michail Antonio, 8 Pablo Fornals
