GUNMAN ACTING ALONE
West Ham 1 Manchester United 0
It was interesting to see this evening’s pre-match guest of honour was Clyde Best, a West Ham striker from the 70s who played more than once in sides that beat Manchester United at Upton Park, even with Law, Best and Charlton in their ranks. That set me thinking about the number of times West Ham have defied the odds to overcome supposed giants in the English Football League.
Recovered from their bout of the midweek gastros, Rice, Aguerd and Souček are returned. So far so good. Manchester United, like Spurs, have developed an awkward tendency to lose games that might have been certain victories at the beginning of March. And yet both of these teams would have us believe that they are shoe ins for one of the two Champions League places for next season that won’t be filled by Arsenal or Manchester City.
The first fifteen minutes pass without threat to either goal, and the cynics are already tutting that it might be a third league defeat in three. I have noticed, however, that each player in tonight’s XI is pulling their weight, and that Hammers look more than comfortable against this team that knocked them out of the FA Cup way back when.
Now comes the moment in the game to liven things up a little. Rice wins the ball in midfield and lays it off left to Benrahma whose accurate stroked pass towards the right of De Gea unaccountably skips gently past his despairing, outstretched hand and into the corner of the net. 1-0. I look to the referee to be holding his earpiece while some Man United fan from Stockley Park screams obscenities down the line at him. But it doesn’t happen.
Then in first half injury time Lindelöf, on loan from the Harlem Globetrotters, sets off from inside the penalty area,bouncing the ball away from Bowen’s feet to safety. And how is that not a penalty? Referee Klutz waves away protests and blows the whistle for half time.
The second half avalanche of pressure from a team hunting down Champions League qualification does not come. Time and again West Ham resist the pressure of United’s overpaid stars, and Benrahma looks increasingly like someone who may individually shape the success of West Ham’s season, turning with feigns and twists to keep possession and seek out Antonio and Bowen in spaces behind the Manchester defence.
Moyes holds stubbornly fast on the eleven players on the pitch, only making three out of four of his substitutions deep into the eight minutes of Fergie time to carve back the necessary seconds and shift his tired team towards the final whistle. When it comes, there are yells and whoops of delight all around the ground. This will prove a massively important victory in the whole scheme of things for this difficult season, one suspects.
With the first leg of the semi-final of the European Conference League this Thursday, the West Ham team have understandably spreadeagled their minds across the two competitions that will determine their season in the final analysis, but moving seven points clear of the drop after today’s result can only help divert the focus to European success in June.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 23 Thilo Kehrer, 27 Nayef Aguerd, 41 Declan Rice (captain), 11 Lucas Paquetá, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes:, 8 Pablo Fornals, 2 Ben Johnson, 12 Flynn Downes, 33 Emerson
Goalscorer: Saïd Benrahma
