West Ham were fifteenth in the Premier League table after a huge 4-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspurs, and thus, wanted to take a good result against Manchester United to secure some important points from this game. Moreover, the Hammers had taken two consecutive home wins over the Red Devils in previous seasons and were aiming to register a hat-trick of wins against Erik Ten Hag's side at the London Stadium.
Both West Ham and Manchester United have been inconsistent in the ongoing league campaign, hence, a win here could give a significant boost to Julen Lopetegui’s side for their upcoming matches. In the absence of star forward Mohammed Kudus, Carlos Soler played on the left flank and manager Julen Lopetegui started Fabianski and Mavropanos in place of Areola and Todibo.
Summerville scores first West Ham goal as Hammers take last-minute 2-1 win
Edson Alvarez also returned to the starting lineup to provide more defensive solidity to West Ham, after the Hammers conceded three goals inside eight minutes in the previous match. However, the visitors created some huge chances in the first half as they took advantage of West Ham's few misplaced passes to start their counter-attack.
Moreover, Erik Ten Hag's came very close to taking a 1-0 lead as well, but Diogo Dalot's attempt inside the box went above the open-goal. Fabianski mistimed his clearance which resulted in Manchester United getting a great chance to score the open-goal, but the score remained at 0-0. Lopetegui had dropped Soucek from the starting lineup, which led the Hammers to consistently defend a lot of good chances.
Also, Soler didn't manage to create some huge goalscoring opportunities on the left-wing and was replaced by Cryscencio Summerville. Lucas Paqueta and Konstantinos Mavropanos were also substituted at half-time to bring Tomas Soucek and Jean-Clair Todibo in order to strengthen their defence for the second half.
These three substitutions were impressive as Summerville scored his first West Ham goal to give the 1-0 lead to the Hammers, and Soucek's defensive work-ethic and physicality allowed Julen Lopetegui’s side to start winning more ball-possession. Although West Ham conceded the 1-1 equaliser with only ten minutes remaining in the match, Todibo provided more reliability and composure to the Hammers defence.
Both sides were aiming to score the 2-1 winner, but the Red Devils gave away a penalty and captain Jarrod Bowen’s spot-kick attempt found the back of the net to register a last-minute thrilling 2-1 win for the Hammers. Although Julen Lopetegui’s side didn't look much convincing throughout the match, they managed to secure the three points from this important match.
With this win, West Ham are currently thirteenth in the Premier League table, and would aim to continue their winning momentum in the upcoming matches against Nottingham Forest and Everton.