West Ham On Soung At Old Trafford
Newly-promoted Leeds United’s 3-1 home win over Chelsea on Wednesday night sent West Ham United back into the relegation zone ahead of Thursday night’s trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United. The Hammers didn’t jump back out of the bottom three but at least they have an extra point to show for their efforts, as they drew 1-1.
Nuno Espírito Santo made one change to the side that lost to Liverpool four days earlier, as Tomáš Souček replaced the suspended Lucas Paquetá in midfield. Youngsters Ezra Mayers, George Earthy, Callum Marshall and Mohamadou Kanté were all included in the matchday squad.
Alphonse Areola retained his place in goal for the visitors and in so doing, made his 100th Premier League appearance for the club.
Manchester United have found results hard to come by in front of their own supporters in recent times and the Irons were clearly determined to make up for the home defeat to Arne Slot’s men at the weekend, whilst also aiming to emulate their success here last season.
Ruben Amorim’s team lost their last game here and were slow to get any sort of rhythm going in the early stages, as the East Londoners were controlling proceedings. The travelling support saw their side go close on two occasions inside the opening eight minutes but the efforts from both Mateus Fernandes and Jean-Clair Todibo were unfortunately blocked by a combination of Casemiro and youngster Ayden Heaven.
The visitors still couldn’t break the resilience of the hosts when visiting captain Jarrod Bowen tried his luck but again, the Brazilian midfielder was in the way and when they did finally work the space to fashion an opportunity, El Hadji Malick Diouf didn’t make the most of it, as he sliced wide.
The Red Devils suddenly clicked into gear and it took a defensive effort from Espírito Santo’s side to keep them out. Thankfully though, they managed it meaning there was no change in the scoreline.
The home side continued to pile on the pressure but the East Londoners were also on their mettle as Matheus Cunha and Bruno Fernandes went close but were eventually denied.
Bowen had a great chance to open the scoring ten minutes before the break, as he raced past three home players but he couldn’t finish the chance off as it was blocked by Luke Shaw and then found its way through to Senne Lammens in the hosts’ goal.
The visitors were patient throughout the first-half and it was only down to the fact that Amorim’s men weren’t able to take advantage and when referee Andrew Kitchen blew the whistle for the break that the contest was still goalless.
You would imagine that the home Head-Coach would have had a lot to say to his side at half-time but it still took time for the home support to see a goal, as the Hammers kept throwing their bodies in the way with Freddie Potts, Souček and Soungoutou Magassa continually thwarting them.
The home players were regularly passing up opportunities in the first-half but, from the way they were continuing to assert their dominance after the break, Irons’ fans just knew that a chance was going to fall in favour of their opponents sooner rather than later and that is exactly what happened on fifty eight minutes. An unopposed Diogo Dalot was allowed to run into the box and drive a shot into the net past Areola and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
West Ham obviously wanted to prevent the Red Devils from scoring again whilst trying to get themselves back on level terms. Both teams were standing firm and it looked as if the hosts would atone for their last result and performance here ten days ago.
Espírito Santo didn’t have many senior options available to him off the bench, so it took until the eighty third minute for him to make any changes and when he did, he made a double alteration, as he handed Kanté his first-team debut by introducing the Frenchman in place of Souček, while Potts was withdrawn for Andrew Irving.
With a point having seemingly been secured, the visitors made a third and final substitution on eighty seven minutes with Max Kilman entering the fray for Callum Wilson.
A succession of corners went the way of the visitors minutes later and the Scotsman took responsibility for one of the set-pieces. His in-swinging delivery was flicked on by the skipper and although defender Noussair Mazraoui cleared off the line, the ball fell invitingly for Magassa, who kept his composure and put it past Lammens for the equaliser.
Bruno Fernandes had two chances to cement three points but the Irons held on to take a share of the spoils. They will now try to grab all three points at a place where they have inevitably struggled in the past when they make the journey to The American Express Stadium to take on Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon.