Man Utd win 6th consecutive match in Premier League

Substitute Mata's goal and Ibrahimovic's offside goal helped Man Utd beat hosts West Ham 2-0 on the evening of January 2.

Scorers: Juan Mata (63'), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (78')

Man Utd played in a deadlock despite having an extra man from the 15th minute. However, coach Jose Mourinho's precise personnel adjustments in the second half brought results when two substitutes, Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata, combined to bring the opening goal. Luck was also on the "Red Devils" side when the referee made a mistake, recognizing the goal scored in an offside position by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Defeating West Ham 2-0,Man Utdhave won six consecutive matches in the Premier League.

SituationFeghouli's red card was the turning point of the match. Photo: Reuters

West Ham took the initiative to push up their attacking formation right after the opening whistle. The home team completely dominated the game, within the first 10 minutes Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini launched three dangerous shots towards De Gea's goal.

However, the game changed in the 15th minute. Sofiane Feghouli, after pushing the ball long, rushed in to challenge Phil Jones and referee Mike Dean immediately showed a red card and sent the French player off. Short of players, West Ham could no longer maintain the attacking game as before.

Man Utdplayed with more players but played quite stalemately. In the first 30 minutes of the match, coach Jose Mourinho's team had more than 60% possession but could not get a single shot on target. It was not until the 35th minute that the away team had their first good chance but unfortunately missed it. From a distance of only about 2m, Antonio Valencia shot straight at goalkeeper Darren Randolph. Jesse Lingard then kicked the rebound from close range and hit the post.

Mata shines, breaking the deadlock for Man United. Photo: Reuters

Seeing his team's stalemate, Mourinho decided to make two changes to the attack at the start of the second half, with Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford coming on for Matteo Darmian and Jesse Lingard. The "Special One"'s adjustment paid off handsomely when in the 63rd minute Rashford got rid of two West Ham defenders before passing the ball to Mata, who scored with one touch past goalkeeper Randolph to open the scoring.

AfterMan Utdhad scored, the television cameras were focused on Michail Antonio for a long time. Had the West Ham striker scored in a one-on-one with goalkeeper De Gea three minutes earlier, the game might have taken a different turn.

Rashford was the standout player of the match. Ten minutes after setting up Mata, he again set up Pogba. However, the French midfielder missed the chance to double the lead when he shot just wide of the post. Three minutes later, Rashford himself took a powerful shot that goalkeeper Randolph let slip through his armpit. If the ball had not lightly hit the post, the English striker could have scored his own goal.

After being behind, coach Slaven Bilic sent Andy Carroll onto the pitch with the intention of forcing West Ham to switch to high balls in search of an equalizer. However, when the 1m91 striker had not yet had a chance to threaten De Gea's goal, his team had to accept an unfair loss. After the chaotic situation, the ball came to Ibrahimovic's feet, the Swedish player immediately kicked and shot into the West Ham net. Slow motion from television showed that Ibrahimovic was in an offside position before taking the shot.

Beat West Ham 2-0,Man Utdmaintained sixth place in the Premier League table with 39 points. Coach Jose Mourinho's team is 10 points behind leaders Chelsea while playing one more match.

According to VNE