West Ham showed up against Manchester United, carrying play for the majority of the game and regularly threatening De Gea’s goal. Despite their solid play, the Hammers leave empty-handed in an unjust loss.
Let’s start with West Ham’s goalscorer: Felipe Anderson. The Brazilian winger was balling all match, swapping wings at will and stretching out the Manchester United defense regularity. He had more success creeping into the 18-yard box in this match as well.
He had a goal, the would-have-been opener, that was incorrectly overruled for offside. The linesman wasn’t correctly positioned and ignored Dalot on the far side. The overruling canceled out a well-worked cross and headed pass that Anderson slammed into the back of the net.
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Anderson would get his just desserts later, equalizing the game on a beautiful back post cross from Manuel Lanzini. Anderson drifted into the box away from his marker and beat David de Gea near post. The power made de Gea’s hand irrelevant and Anderson was on the scoreboard.
Outside of Anderson, West Ham had many players who stood out. Surprise starts for Masuaku,
Zabaleta and Ogbonna all turned out fruitful as the trio of defenders handled themselves well all game.
The other star in this match was Declan Rice – this is not a recording! Rice bossed this match, as he usually does, with interception after interception and tackle after tackle. He proved why he’s so important to the Hammers today and showed maturity beyond his years yet again.
Special shoutouts to Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio for their performances in this match as well. Before pulling up lame with a probable groin injury, Lanzini had an up and down game but punctuated it with the perfect assist on Anderson’s goal.
Antonio’s efforts came off the bench as he replaced Chicharito late in the match. Manchester United’s defenders had no answer for Antonio’s speed and brute physicality. He nailed the crossbar on a near-perfect shot and also forced a ridiculous save from de Gea off of a header.
In the end, two penalties handed the Red Devils the win in this one. The first was extremely soft from the referee who ignored the point of contact and tackle itself for Juan Mata’s explosive reaction to feeling contact on his back. The second was legit but still stung. Pogba gets the play the hero as he converted both but West Ham and the footballing world know who really won this match.