Casemiro's difficult week
No United fan is going to volunteer to swap Casemiro for Declan Rice after this season but this week has been a difficult one for the Brazilian who has done almost nothing wrong since joining from Real Madrid in August.
There have been signs of his performance level just starting to tail off recently and he was second-best against Brighton on Thursday and West Ham - and Rice - on Sunday. Moises Caicedo contributed to the Brighton effort from right-back. They are both excellent midfielders and have previously been United targets, which might sting for the player who has finally knitted the midfield together.
The £70million signing has been a revelation this season, but this was one of his poorest games for the club. The quality of his passing has dropped a little in recent weeks and he struggled to contain West Ham's midfield in the same way he failed to help halt Brighton's dominance in the second half on Thursday.
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You can guarantee a return to form for Casemiro at some point, but this was another stand-out performance from the excellent Rice. He often raises his game against United, although given how good he is most weeks these days that might be an unfair assessment.
His time at West Ham must surely be coming to an end and his quality deserves a greater stage than this. The ship to Old Trafford might have sailed, but Rice will almost certainly end up at one of their Premier League rivals.
Eriksen yet to find top gear
It's probably to be expected that Christian Eriksen is yet to get back to his very best after three months out this season. This was only his eighth appearance since his return, but the fact he's yet to complete 90 minutes in that run feels felling. He is not influencing games to the same extent as in the first half of the season.
He was left out against Brighton in midweek and not called on from the bench but returned to the starting XI at the London Stadium. Ten Hag said before kick-off that the 31-year-old would offer "rotation, key passes and final passes", but there wasn't an awful lot of that on show.
Eriksen was often the player setting the tempo for United in the first half of the season but he was unable to do that here. The fact both Eriksen and Casemiro are a little below par at the moment is why the pace of their play has dropped. It was far too pedestrian against West Ham and that has to improve.
Setting new targets
When Newcastle were beaten at home by Arsenal just before United kicked-off in the capital it offered Erik ten Hag's team the chance to reclaim third in the Premier League, but for the second time in four days, they let that opportunity slip.
This was another miserable away day for Ten Hag's side and it capped off a week in which they have left themselves with work to do in the Premier League, with Liverpool now just a point back in fifth.
It might not be panic stations just yet, but there will be some nervous glances over shoulders at the table over the next few days. United really should be third now and looking to make that position their own between now and the end of the season, not fearing that their good work could be undone by a late collapse.
Even if Liverpool will all of their remaining games, United would have to drop points in two of their last four games. That's unlikely, given the fixture list and that they have three of those games at Old Trafford, but it's not impossible and if Liverpool keep up the pressure it could get nervous, when it really should have been a cruise.
A limp response
United had started this game reasonably well, even if their opportunities had come for distance. Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Antony and Eriksen had all at least threatened Lukasz Fabianski's goal and they looked the more assured team.
But after the setback of gifting West Ham the lead the response was almost non-existent. For the rest of the game it was the home side who looked the more threatening when they attacked, while United never rediscovered their poise.
There was never enough speed and quality to their attacking play and they didn't really mount an assault on Fabianski's goal until injury time, when Anthony Martial twice missed good chances. It was too little too late.
Weghorst's midfield role
If you were being unkind you would say Wout Weghorst doesn't have the kind of goalscoring record to play as a striker in the Premier League, so why not start moving him further back down the pitch?
This was the scene of his last Premier League goal 13 months ago and his record in this competition now reads two goals in 34 appearances. For a player who is pretty much a one-in-two forward in the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey, it's a perplexing record.
He's looked less and less likely to score recently for United so his recall was a surprise until he lined up for kick-off, in a midfield trio rather than at the apex of the United team. He hardly looks a natural fit for a central midfielder, but he did a lot of good work in that position until being taken off as Ten Hag searched for a goal.
The 30-year-old was a combative presence but he also produced just some neat touches and linked play well. He was good defensively as well. When David de Gea kicked an early pass straight to Declan Rice, it was Weghorst who tracked back all the way and then timed his block perfectly, winning a goal kick.
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