West Ham United moved on the brink of Premier League safety on Sunday night with a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at the London Stadium.
Said Benrahma's first half goal sealed three points for West Ham to end their three-match losing streak, moving them seven points clear of the Premier League's relegation zone with the Hammers having just three league matches left this season.
As the Hammers earned their biggest win of the season against Erik ten Hag's side, here are five of the major talking points.
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Safety all but sealed
West Ham entered the game against United off the back of three straight losses to Liverpool, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, hosting Champions League-chasing United in their penultimate home Premier League match of the season. While it was not expected that anything would get picked up, there was hope, especially with 22 of their 34 points picked up prior to kick-off coming at the London Stadium.
While the opening 25 minutes were open and end to end, it was the visitors who had the best chances, helped by the space given to Antony on West Ham’s left side. The Brazilian had a shot from distance go wide himself, as well as teeing up one for Bruno Fernandes from range, with Marcus Rashford cutting in off the left side and thumping a low shot off the post.
Without having chances, West Ham showed promise at times on the break, but lacked the cutting edge or clinical pass to make the chance early on and needed some major fortune to go their way when they did get one.
As Jarrod Bowen flicked the ball forward when beating both Casemiro and Tyrell Malacia in a battle, the ball squirmed to Michail Antonio, who did enough to flick it away from Luke Shaw, whose attempted clearance ricocheted off Benrahma and in a good position to run on to. Despite having Shaw, Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka all on him, the Algerian did just enough to wriggle his way through for a shot from range, albeit a tame one.
His effort was straight at Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea, who got low, but timed himself all wrong and made a right mess out of the most routine of routine saves to give West Ham the lead. That was Benrahma's 10th goal of the season and his sixth in the Premier League; certainly the worst goal of the six, but definitely the most important one.
United continued to hit back for the rest of the first half as Antony, again causing havoc in the early stages, getting a shot from distance off, via a deflection from Nayef Aguerd, to be denied only by the far post.
However, West Ham would have gone into the half feeling robbed that they were not given a first half penalty. After Lucas Paqueta’s exquisite through ball found the run of Benrahma, the Algerian’s shot forced a good save out of De Gea, but it fell back to the winger. His cross was blocked by the hand of Swedish defender Victor Lindelof, who had has body in a tangle before moving his arm towards the ball and blocking the cross. Somehow, it was not given.
Early in the second half, West Ham had three chances in a matter of seconds when Benrahma had a shot blocked, leading to Tomas Soucek’s effort being batted away and Aguerd seeing a shot blocked for a corner, which Aguerd almost then headed in off Cresswell's delivery.
Minutes later, West Ham could again feel aggrieved that when Antonio put the ball in the net to make it 2-0, it was not given. After a long Thilo Kehrer throw-in was flicked on, Antonio pressured De Gea before getting a foot to the ball and steering it in. However, it was ruled out for a foul on De Gea, one that looked very much on the soft side.
Soucek, who seemed to have his shooting boots on, then came close to scoring again when thundering a back post volley towards goal off a Paqueta cross, one that was denied only by the outside of the post. The Czech Republic midfielder thought he made it 2-0 when meeting Paqueta’s cross with a thumping front post header, but found himself correctly flagged for offside.
As the second half, which West Ham dominated for large parts, drew towards its final knockings, United came close to levelling, with Rashford and substitute Anthony Martial both forcing good stops out of Lukasz Fabianski at his near post.
West Ham’s late defensive resolve proved to get the job done as West Ham recorded comfortably their biggest, best and most important win of the season at such a crucial time.
Seven points clear of 16th, 17th and 18th, and eight points clear of 19th, barring miraculously perfect form, West Ham have safety all but sealed.
Time to focus on Europe
In 10 of the last 11 seasons, 37 points has been enough to stay up in the Premier League and with West Ham now on that total with three league games remaining, they can afford to put more attention onto their Europa Conference League campaign, with safety all but confirmed.
Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Everton and Southampton, four of the five teams below West Ham, are all in action on Monday and now have even more pressure on themselves to get results, with the Hammers taking a big step towards survival by beating United.
Next up for West Ham is the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final clash against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar at the London Stadium.
Had West Ham lost to United, they would have gone into their first leg off the back of four straight losses, no better than four points clear of the drop zone and weighing up the balancing act of how strong they can go in Europe.
Now, however, what manager David Moyes is able to do is pick a stronger side with much less pressure on the trip to Brentford less than 72 hours after the meeting with AZ Alkmaar and really give this European semi-final the treatment it deserves, something West Ham may have not been able to do without the result.
On UEFA’s club coefficient ranks, AZ Alkmaar sit 37th and three places above West Ham. That, combined with the fact that they sit fourth in the Eredivisie table and two points behind third-place Ajax, who they drew with on Saturday, shows AZ will be no pushover of an opponent.
Buoyed by the fact they have beaten Man United and can now attack this semi-final, they should and will be able to do so in the safety that Premier League survival feels as good as being taken care of.
VAR’s shocker proves to not overshadow win
For the third time in West Ham’s last four Premier League matches, VAR has made the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.
In losses against Liverpool and Crystal Palace, West Ham were first not given a penalty for handball by Thiago before Palace were handed a generous penalty for Eberechi Eze less than 72 hours later. Both were very questionable and both, left Moyes furious, but at least in some aspects, there was perhaps a case to be made for why the decisions went against West Ham.
However, when Benrahma's cross was blocked by the hand of Lindelof, everyone was left puzzled as to how on earth West Ham were not given a late first half spot-kick.
Lindelof moved his hand towards the ball to block it, it was nowhere near the ball when Benrahma initially made the cross. Ironically, Lindelof got a stronger hand to that than De Gea did when trying to stop Benrahma's match-winning pea roller of a strike.
To make matters worse, West Ham then had a goal from Antonio chalked off for a foul on De Gea. Again, it looked like De Gea tried to buy it after struggling to deal with an effective and direct set-piece from West Ham, which the experienced Spaniard could not get a grip of.
As Moyes said in his post-match press conference, he was just pleased that VAR decisions did not cost his side points as they perhaps have done in recent weeks, but the question over how a handball as blatant as Lindelof's did not get looked at will baffle the mind for sometime.
Midfield trio back with a bang
Recovering from a sickness bug in midweek, Declan Rice and Soucek were both back to play alongside Paqueta in a midfield three that put on probably their best display as a trio to date.
Anchoring it was captain Rice, who was absolutely sensational and is now the only midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues to make over 30 interceptions, clearances, take-ons completed, aerial duels won, chances created and shots.
Alongside with his a combative and brilliant Soucek, who fought for everything that came near him and even flung his body at a loose ball in West Ham’s box late on that led to him clashing heads with Wan-Bissaka.
Paqueta was the creative one and although he did not get a goal or assist, made three of West Ham’s 11 key passes, including those for a Soucek volley and a golden chance for Benrahma.
That combination allowed West Ham to completely overrun Casemiro and Christian Eriksen against them, who may have seen more of the ball, but were far less effective with it.
After the game, Moyes said he was happy to see the trio blending and feels they proved what they could do as a combination.
"We praised Declan a lot there, I actually thought the three midfielders, Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta have got the opportunity to be a really well-balanced midfield because they all offer different things," Moyes said at full-time.
"Tomas tonight gave us a lot of other parts, he heads it out of the box, he does what he done, he blocks things, he had a couple of chances to score tonight as well. Tomas’ performances have been improving as we’ve gone along.
"Going back to Lucas Paqueta, who showed magic moments and then some other bits not so good, but overall, I think the balance of the three midfield players were very good. He’s okay with his head, he just got a clash of heads that was all."
David De Gea’s helping hand
Mistakes happen in football, all football players are human, but De Gea’s mistake was not only a shocker, but also something that is not a one off.
Players do make mistakes and 52 Premier League players have made one error directly leading to a goal this season.
De Gea however finds himself as one of only 12 players to have reached the unwanted multiple club, making two this season as his flap at the London Stadium cost his side dearly against the Hammers.
The goal itself proved to be the deciding factor, but West Ham did more than enough to earn the win on merit, especially after De Gea’s helping hand.
That goal swung the game, even though United had chances at the end of both halves. West Ham’s threat, purpose, quality and control all grew, helped largely by the growing atmosphere created by the Bank Holiday Hammers crowd.
If West Ham were going to save up their only win against a ‘big six’ club for their 12th and final attempt, then it felt worth it, but the players and fans alike made it a huge occasion, and will need to do the exact same against AZ on Thursday night.
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