West Ham United Hammer Manchester United

By Danny Ward

West Ham United confidently dispatched Manchester United at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday to add more misery to Jose Mourinho and his Red Devils in the 2018/19 Premier League campaign.

Felipe Anderson opened the scores in the 7th minute, and Victor Lindelof doubled it up with an own goal in the 43rd minute, but Manchester United got back into the game with Marcus Rashford’s consolation in the 71st minute only for Marko Anautovic to double the lead again in the 74th minute.

Jose Mourinho’s men lacked spark as their distribution play was sloppy and careless, and that capped a week in which the manager renewed his feud with midfielder Paul Pogba by stripping him off his role as the club's deputy captain and exchanging words with him at the training grounds.

The defeat drops the Red Devils to the 8th position on the league table with nine points ahead of their Champions League visit of Valencia on Tuesday, while the Hammers have progressed a bit far from the drop zone and are 12th on the table.

Manchester United kicked off the game, but soon lost possession to West Ham United, who went on to win two corner kicks within the first five minutes; first from Mark Noble’s challenge in the first minute and David de Gea’s redirection of Fabian Balbuena’s dangerous header in the 4th minute.

Manuel Pellegrini's men kept accelerating while Jose Mourinho’s men kept retreating to defensive areas, and the hosts’ persistence paid off in the 7th minute.

Luke Shaw lost the ball to Yarmolenko, within the visitors’ final third. The midfielder found Zabaleta who delivered a low cross into the penalty box from an offside position. Felipe Anderson finished it off with a delightful back-heel goal that left de Gea motionless.

Manchester United started coming into the game after the goal as they began to function in the midfield, but Marouane Fellaini had his 14th-minute cross blocked, before Romelu Lukaku planted a header into the upright in the 27th minute.

West Ham United soon found their way back into the game and displayed some eye-catching exchanges of the ball from midfield to attack, but did not pose any major threat to the visitors except in the 35th minute when Chris Smalling headed a cross to corner to prevent the ball from landing on Marck Noble who stood unmarked inside the penalty area.

Luke Shaw had a cross cleared to safety in the 38th minute, and the Hammers soon turned back the heat on the Red Devils with Pedro Obiang feeding on a pass in the 42nd minute to fire over the bar from close range.

Andriy Yarmolenko made matters worse for the visitors in the 43rd minute when he picked up a header from Anderson's corner kick, inside the box, and, after some twist and turns, fired a shot which deflected on Victor Lindelof before heading into David de Gea's post.

Both sides began the second half with their squads unchanged, but Manchester United looked more threatening than the hosts and capped a dominant five minutes with three inaccurate shots into Fabianski’s post.

Mourinho replaced Lindelof with Marcus Rashford in the 57th minute, and Lukasz Fabianski pulled a brilliant save to deny Fellaini from heading into the top corner in the 64th minute, seven minutes before Luke Shaw swang a cross into the box for Marcus Rashford to score with a magnificent back-heel goal.

Manchester United’s idea of building on the momentum was cut short after just three minutes when Marko Arnautovic latched into an accurate through pass from Mark Noble to strike a low effort inside the right post.