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Manchester United beat West Ham United 2-1 yesterday at Old Trafford to move into the 5th place in the Premier League table. United now have 64 points from 33 matches, whereas West Ham are leading the bottom half of the table with 42 points from 34 matches.
Paul Pogba scored both the goals for United through penalties and Felipe Anderson scored the only goal for West Ham. Yesterday’s win was a welcome relief for United, who have lost 4 of their last 6 matches. West Ham dominated ball-possession with almost 60% of it, but United did just about enough to secure a victory they needed badly.
United still trail Tottenham and Chelsea by 3 and 2 points respectively, whereas Arsenal are a point behind them with a game in hand. Thus, the race for the 3rd and 4th places seems to be no less captivating than the one for the title in Premier League this season.
We would now take a look at the 3 takeaways from yesterday’s match.
#1 United started with an asymmetrical 4-3-3, and got a dubious penalty decision in their favour
United started the match with an asymmetrical 4-3-3 formation with Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard starting in the left and right wings respectively. Martial provided width through the left flank, and kept cutting in from the wings, but Lingard stayed in the central area more often.
As a result, United had to depend a lot on right-back Diego Dalot’s overlaps, as Lingard hardly posed any attacking threat through the right flank. Romelu Lukaku started as the centre-forward, but kept moving to either of the flanks to provide some crosses to the opposition penalty box at times.
United started with Juan Mata, Paul Pogba and Fred in the midfield, as players like Scott McTominay, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw were rested keeping in mind next week’s match-up against Barcelona at Camp Nou. Marcus Rojo started as the left back and Phil Jones played as the centre-back alongside Chris Smalling.
However, United got a lucky decision in their favour, as Mata was fouled just outside the West Ham penalty box, but the referee pointed to the spot. Pogba converted the penalty in the 19th minute to give United a 1-0 lead.
#2 Anderson and Antonio played well for the Hammers:
Felipe Anderson posed a lot of problems to the United defence throughout the first half. One of his shots was saved by David De Gea, and on another occasion, he saw his header miss the goal by a whisker. The Brazilian was ultimately rewarded in the 49th minute, when he scored his 10th goal in 37 matches for West Ham.
If Anderson was a menace for United’s defence in the first half, Antonio’s introduction in the second made West Ham go close to taking the lead. Antonio came very close to scoring twice in the space of a few minutes, as his rasping shot beat De Gea and hit the crossbar in the 75th minute.
A minute later, De Gea made a wonderful save from Antonio’s header to deny him again. West Ham looked good enough to take the lead at that point in time, but it was United who actually managed to score the winning goal.
#3 Rashford’s introduction did the trick for United
Marcus Rashford did not start yesterday, as the intention was to give him some rest ahead of the Barcelona match. However, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to introduce him in the second half, as United were getting desperate for the elusive equalizer.
Rashford played his part in United’s second goal, as his wonderful back-heel found an unmarked Martial inside the opposition half. Martial got hold of the ball and ran into the penalty box, but was tripped by a West Ham defender. The referee pointed to the spot again, and Pogba made no mistake in converting his second penalty kick of the day in the 80th minute of the match.
It was Pogba’s 16th goal of the season, and he yet again contributed to a United win. The goal came against the course of the match, and West Ham were shell-shocked by it. They tried desperately for yet another equalizer, but United managed to hold on to the lead and sneak out 3 valuable points.
