Jarrod Bowen

Hammers slip to late defeat at Manchester United


Manchester United 1-0 West Ham United
Premier League, Old Trafford, Saturday 22 January 2022
 

Marcus Rashford scored for Manchester United with virtually the last kick of the game to break West Ham United hearts at Old Trafford.

The Hammers battled well for long spells and looked set to hold out for a third clean sheet in their last four matches before Edinson Cavani's low cross was turned in by the England forward in the third minute of injury time.

Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice had both gone close earlier on in the second half for the Irons in a match which ebbed and flowed, but looked in all likelihood destined for a draw until Rashford's late intervention.

A second consecutive Premier League defeat saw West Ham side slip a point behind Manchester United in the Premier League table.

Kurt Zouma, having completed his rehabilitation from the hamstring tendon injury which kept the Frenchman out of action since early December returned for the Old Trafford test to start alongside Craig Dawson in the centre of defence, while Alphonse Areola was handed a first Premier League appearance for West Ham in the absence of Łukasz Fabiański.

Tomáš Souček, who was absent from recent home fixtures against Norwich City and Leeds United after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, also returned to action at the Theatre of Dreams.

A high-intensity start belied a dreary first half which would follow, but it was Manchester United who had the first shot of the game inside five minutes.

Dawson ceded possession of the ball on the halfway line, allowing Bruno Fernandes to carry it forwards and play in Mason Greenwood. Checking back onto his left foot, the Red Devils’ forward was well closed down by Souček.

The Hammers’ only real openings in the early exchanges derived from direct runs from Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio, but on both occasions, the moves were halted by crunching tackles from Harry Maguire inside the box.

Both teams struggled for fluency as similar systems cancelled one another out, but it was Manchester United who created the clearer chances and, 20 minutes in, perhaps ought to have taken the lead. 

From a deep position, Fernandes whipped a cross of real venom towards the penalty spot, where a stooping Cristiano Ronaldo – sprinting in between centre- and full-back – appeared to misjudge the ball’s flight, watching it sail wide of Areola’s far post.

Diogo Dalot was next to go close for Manchester United, planting a header wide of Areola’s top-right corner after Anthony Elanga had hung the ball up in the box.

The Hammers lacked their usual precision on the ball inside the opening half an hour, and while Antonio’s presence was posing the Red Devils problems, several misplaced passes – and an offside flag – led to promising moves breaking down in the attacking third.

In truth, neither side had really offered enough offensively to warrant a half-time lead, although the Hammers appeared to have created a decent opening on the crest of the whistle.

Vladimír Coufal’s ball forwards was allowed to run on by Antonio to Pablo Fornals on the edge of the ‘D’. The Spaniard might have opted to shoot but instead sprayed the ball left to Manuel Lanzini who, in attempting to check back onto his favoured right foot, allowed Scott McTominay to steal a yard back and dispossess him.

A forgettable first half did, however, pave the way for a more open second - and one in which West Ham demonstrated real defensive resolve under pressure.

Within moments of the restart, Zouma produced a moment of quality at the back, reading Alex Telles’ low cross and stepping in front of Ronaldo when the Portuguese looked destined to score, albeit with Telles then flagged up for offside.

Fellow Frenchman Areola faced his first real test after 50 minutes - and the hosts' only shot on target before injury time - when Ronaldo laid the ball off for Fred to aim for the top corner, but our No13 stood tall to tip the rising effort away athletically.

With the game stepping up a notch, so too did West Ham’s attacking play. Some inventive lobbed passing between Coufal and Souček afforded Fornals the space to shoot on the edge of the area, but once more, the effort arrived a split-second too late and was charged down.

Moments later, Bowen came close to a fourth goal in his last six games. A deflected Aaron Cresswell cross gave Fornals the chance to deliver from a corner, and when the ball flicked off Antonio’s head, it ran through for the No20 to shoot from the corner of the penalty area. The ball was always rising, however, and on Bowen’s weaker right foot, the winger’s lashed effort rippled David de Gea’s side-netting.

The game had, at long last, opened up, Raphael Varane the next to go close after meeting Telles’ out-swinging corner. The Frenchman’s glancing effort, thankfully, just about cleared the Hammers’ far post.

Elanga soon after hooked a volley wide of the goal from a difficult angle and Fernandes attempted a piledriver from 30 yards, but blasted over under pressure from Souček.

Bowen continued to battle spiritedly on the counter-attack, one driving run from the halfway line seeing him hold off four challenges on his way to the edge of the area, before losing the ball to an unlucky deflection off Varane.

And Dawson was next to show his defensive mettle, attacking Fernandes’ delivery with a brave diving header as Ronaldo shaped to volley goalwards, before Fernandes wasted a shooting opportunity inside the 'D' after cutting inside Zouma.

No Premier League team have scored more goals from corners since the return of Moyes as manager - and that avenue might have led to a crucial West Ham goal with four minutes remaining.

Bowen’s industry earned the No20 a corner off Telles and, whipping it towards the far post, Souček got across his man and flicked towards the far post - agonisingly wide, as it turned out, with Antonio also sliding in.

Areola then got down low to deny Ronaldo on the swivel and hold, before Rice concerned de Gea with a deflected low cross - just wide of his near post.

As football so often provides, there was to be one, final, cruel twist, Rashford's goal snatching all three points at the death for the Red Devils.
 

West Ham United: Areola; Coufal (Fredericks 70), Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Lanzini, Fornals, Antonio
Subs: Randolph, Diop, Masuaku, Johnson, Král, Noble, Vlašić, Yarmolenko

Booked: Rice

Manchester United: De Gea; Dalot, Varane, Maguire (c), Telles, McTominay, Fred (Cavani 82), Fernandes, Elanga (Rashford 62), Ronaldo, Greenwood (Martial 82)
Subs: Henderson, Jones, Matic, van de Beek, Lingard, Mata

Goal: Rashford 90+3

Booked: Maguire

Referee: Jonathan Moss