When the final whistle finally sounded, David de Gea was mobbed by his team-mates, with Diogo Dalot putting him in a headlock and Lisandro Martinez riding on his back. The Manchester United goalkeeper was taking the plaudits and deserved them, but was just one part of a backs-to-the-wall team performance that had eventually beaten a spirited West Ham United.
Marcus Rashford’s emphatic header in the first half – his 100th United goal – established the lead and a collective rearguard action in the second just about protected it.
This was too close for comfort at times, particularly as David Moyes’ visitors piled forward late on, swinging set-play after set-play into a crowded penalty area. United made hard work of the closing stages and, not for the first time over the past decade, had to rely on De Gea’s heroics. The saves from Kurt Zouma and Declan Rice were spectacular, but Dalot, Luke Shaw and a returning Harry Maguire also made critical interventions at key moments to preserve their goalkeeper’s clean sheet.
The fighting spirit that Erik ten Hag has attempted to encourage was on full display and, at the end, United had still not dropped a single Premier League point from a winning position this season – the best record in the top flight.
Victory lifted ten Hag’s side above Chelsea and into fifth, with a game in hand over fourth-placed Newcastle United. And even if this was far from a comfortable win, it only added to the sense that ten Hag and his players are making progress.
While Moyes made one change from the win against Bournemouth, bringing in Craig Dawson for Ben Johnson, the Thursday-Sunday turnaround forced ten Hag to shuffle his pack slightly. A knock in training deprived Old Trafford of another Antony 360-degree spin but brought Anthony Elanga into the line-up, while Victor Lindelof’s illness allowed Harry Maguire to make his first start since recovering from a thigh injury, with Gareth Southgate watching on from the directors’ box.
Maguire’s place on the plane to Qatar is relatively safe, of course, but Rashford has been less certain of his own spot up until now. Perhaps an eagerness to impress the England manager played a part in him stealing the ball off Cristiano Ronaldo’s toes in West Ham’s penalty area early on, his heavy touch sending the ball wide and wasting United’s first real opening. An apologetic smile broke out across his face and was aimed in Ronaldo’s direction. He would not be doing that again.
But Rashford, and not Ronaldo, would still be the first half’s protagonist, repeatedly finding himself on the end of United’s most dangerous attacks. When Dawson gave possession away to Rashford cheaply a quarter of an hour in, the West Ham defender had Tomas Soucek to thank for blocking a goal-bound shot. A minute later, the opener was foreshadowed when Rashford met a Dalot cross from the right with a downward header that was comfortably held.
Fabianski could do nothing about the goal when it eventually arrived, though, seven minutes before the interval. Each part of the goal was brilliant in its execution. From Dalot’s smart throw-in, an instinctive one-two followed between Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes. When Eriksen received the ball back, he whipped a superb, curling cross to the far post, practically inviting Rashford to connect with a header. He did, and emphatically so, outjumping Thilo Kehrer and powering in.
Moyes replaced Fabianski with Alphonse Areola at half time, but it would take more than a change of goalkeeper to get West Ham into the game. Their only real moment of promise up to that point had been when Kehrer surprised even himself by dancing through United’s defence, then hurriedly squaring for Jarrod Bowen. The fact that Bowen was offside took nothing away from De Gea’s save down low at his near post. Other than that, the visitors were lacking any real threat.
Their task would have been made even harder had Gianluca Scamacca been shown a second yellow card for planting a boot in Martinez’s side at the start of the second half. Referee Chris Kavanagh did not think the incident worthy of stricter punishment but it most likely hastened Moyes into replacing the Italian with Michail Antonio, whose powerful, direct centre-forward play finally injected some menace into West Ham’s play.
Gradually, Moyes’ side began to build momentum, if mostly from set-pieces. The excellent Dalot headed clear at the far post three times in quick succession, while Martinez was needed to prevent Dawson from bundling in a free-kick as the contest entered its closing stages.
United struggled to kill the game off, became sloppy in possession and increasingly found themselves on the back foot. De Gea was needed to protect the three points.
First, he pushed over an Antonio drive from distance, then offered a reminder of the remarkable speed of his reactions to claw away Zouma’s goal-bound header.
At the other end, Fred nodded a Scott McTominay cross against the outside of the post, but any United chances were by that point most certainly against the run of play. West Ham pushed again, with Maguire blocking a goal-bound Bowen effort and Rice seeing an effort from range brilliantly turned away until, finally, that whistle went. United had hung on, just.
