MANCHESTER UNITED’S MINI revival was ended by West Ham as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at the London Stadium.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men had won back-to-back matches in all competitions heading into Sunday’s Premier League clash but were beaten by goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Aaron Cresswell late in both halves.
Yarmolenko scored the breakthrough goal 44 minutes in and Cresswell converted a free-kick six minutes from time to kill off United, who ended the match without a recognised striker after losing Marcus Rashford to injury.
Victory for the visitors would have lifted them into third place but it is West Ham who leap up the table, Manuel Pellegrini’s men moving into the top four thanks to their third win of the season.
The sides managed just six shots between them in the first half – only one Premier League game has seen fewer in the opening 45 minutes this season – but West Ham found a way through from one of them.
Felipe Anderson played a first-time pass into the path of Yarmolenko, who took a touch and rifled the ball into the bottom-left corner of David de Gea’s goal.
United continued to look disjointed in the opening 15 minutes of the second half and were further blunted in attack when Rashford was forced off in the 61st minute.
The visitors did come close to a leveller with 68 minutes on the clock, though, Maguire seeing a low shot saved by Lukasz Fabianski after being teed up by Scott McTominay.
But they were punished for failing to take their only real opportunity of the match as Cresswell curled in a free-kick late on to seal the win.
Shot-shy United lacking options Somewhat forced by injuries to key men, Solskjaer named an unchanged starting line-up in the Premier League for the second time this season – something United did not manage a single time in 2018-19. Mason Greenwood, the match-winner against Astana, missed out through illness and Rashford’s hamstring injury will cause further problems for Solskjaer.
For a side that has spent so heavily in recent years, they played the final half an hour of this match without a recognised striker on the field. Felipe Anderson shows great awareness Yarmolenko’s movement, drifting from the right-hand side into the middle, caught out Maguire and United’s other defenders.
Felipe Anderson’s vision made the opening goal possible, the Brazil midfielder setting up his team-mate to make it nine goals and six assists since the start of last season. Rotten day for Rashford In the prolonged absence of Anthony Martial, it has been left to Rashford to lead the line for United.
In a fixture in which he tends to perform well, Rashford struggled to get involved and hobbled off on the hour having touched the ball only 24 times.
Both sides are in EFL Cup action on Wednesday, with United hosting Rochdale and West Ham travelling to Oxford United. Solskjaer’s side then welcome Arsenal to Old Trafford on September 30, while the Irons face Bournemouth on the south coast next Saturday.
- Omni
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Oh well that is okay then.
@Gillian Scully: They were proved innocent, what about Western Athletes on TUE’s from Wada?
@Alois Irlmaier: not proved innocent, just not proved guilty. Big difference.
Is the wording relevant? They found that they hadn’t benefited from it, does that mean they didn’t do it at all or they did it and failed?
Have lost interest in Olympic sport a long time ago. Don’t trust anything I see.
Great news !
Life bans are ridiculous they are hard to maintain in real courts of law, CAS/DRA once sports rulings impinge on natural justice they are in trouble. Blanket bans are politically motivated decisions, athletes are entitled to serve a time ban. Not that it means anything any way look at the persecution of the Munster Rugby player – crazy
Lee Evans said it best. Just let them all take drugs. Do the bobsled event by running down the track in about 4.5 seconds. I’d watch That!
@David O’Brien: yep . Just have 2 seperate events juiced vs clean and have a big event after to see if clean can beat juiced naturally.
@David O’Brien: They are as they are called TUE’s once that country pays a wad of cash to the right organisation, which Russia hasn’t.
Not sufficient evidence?? The head of the lab said there overwhelming amount. Of doping lol
@Chris Finn: Is that the same head who got US citizenship for saying that the Russian athletes took drugs and was set up in his own lab in the US. Why give him his own lab??? The same man who told athletes to drink the steroids in Martinis, that was funny as steroids are injected not mixed in alcohol that can change the steroid chemically. As well as sticking bottles in and out of holes in a wall where there was never any evidence of holes in the wall… But who cares about facts… They are Russian so they must have done something bad because the US tells us what to believe…
IOC in my view trying to save face, if Russia doesn’t play by U.S. political rules dictated by their own business lobbyists the U.S. will turn the West against Russia. The US has turned the Olympics into a political battle field while Western Athletes continue with their TUE’s where asthmatics are being used to win gold medals for countries over healthy athletes. The corruption in my view just blows my mind…