Manchester United 2 - 1 West Ham: The "Red Devils" effort

From 4th place on the rankings, MU has been pushed down to 6th place. If they receive another defeat against the representative from London, coach Solskjaer and his team will face the prospect of losing all advantages in the race for the top 4 when the season is about to end.

The smile was back on Solskjaer's face as United won 2-1 against West Ham. Photo: Getty

For West Ham, this season, “the Hammers” have not had a truly stable performance. In the last 8 away matches, West Ham had 7 defeats and 1 draw. All the goals of “The Hammers” are gone.

11th place on the rankings ensures that coach Manuel Pellegrini and his team can rest assured to stay in the top flight of the English football next season. So West Ham marched to Old Trafford with a very comfortable mentality.

On the other hand, MU is the team under a lot of pressure as they have to fight hard for a position in the Top 4, while also ensuring their strength for the predicted extremely difficult rematch with Barca in the middle of next week.

Back to the match at Old Trafford, against an opponent not highly rated like West Ham, MU easily controlled the game in the first minutes of the match. But just a few minutes later, West Ham gradually regained control of the game and started pressing high up the field to prevent the home team's attacks.

In the 9th minute of the match, MU's net shook after Felipe Anderson's tap-in, but the referee raised his flag for offside.

Paul Pogba scored two goals from the penalty spot against West Ham. Photo: Getty

Despite being behind, West Ham players were not shaken, they calmly neutralized the home team's attacks, and at the same time increased their attacks after conceding the goal. However, they still could not create real opportunities in the opponent's penalty area. The game was pushed up by both teams in the final minutes of the first half. However, there were no more dangerous situations towards each other's goal, when the defenses of both teams played very focused and covered very tightly.

At the end of the first half, MU temporarily led West Ham with a score of 1 - 0.

Entering the second half, West Ham showed their efforts when they attacked from the very first minutes. And all the efforts of the away team were rewarded when in the 49th minute, goalkeeper De Gea's net shook after Felipe Anderson tapped the ball close to the goal in an open position from a cross from his teammate's left wing. The score was balanced 1 - 1 for West Ham.

West Ham players had a brave match against MU. Photo: Getty

To strengthen the attack, in the 55th minute of the match, MU sent Rashford onto the field to replace Mata to create a difference. Just a few minutes into the field, number 10 dribbled on the right wing and fired a dangerous shot into the far corner of the away team's goal. However, goalkeeper Fabianski was able to fly to save the away team.

With 4 players in the attack line including Lukaku, Martial, Lingard, Rashford, the home team at Old Trafford gradually regained control of the game and dominated the away team. The score should have been raised to 2 - 1 for MU when Rashford had a close-range header in an unmarked position. However, the ball went over the crossbar in the 62nd minute of the match.

West Ham had a chance to increase the score to 2 - 1 in the 76th minute when Antonio dribbled across the penalty area and fired a powerful shot, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced out.

2 minutes later, Antonio headed the ball into the far corner. Goalkeeper De Gea jumped as far as he could and used his fingertips to push the ball away, saving MU by a hair's breadth. A very unfortunate match for the away team and Antonio personally.

While focused on attacking, West Ham suffered a "rebound" blow when, in the 79th minute of the match, during a counter-attack, Martial dribbled the ball at speed from the left wing and then charged straight into the penalty area, forcing the away team's defender to commit a foul.

The referee awarded MU a penalty. For the second time on the 11 meter mark, Paul Pogba coolly shot into the far left corner, defeating goalkeeper Fabianski, the score was 2 - 1 for MU.

The match gradually entered the final minutes, MU players actively retreated deep into the home field to protect the results and wait for counter-attack opportunities. However, despite West Ham's best efforts, they could not create dangerous opportunities on goalkeeper De Gea's goal in the remaining minutes.

At the end of the match at Old Trafford, MU won a hard-fought victory over West Ham with a score of 2-1.

West Ham put up a brave fight with Anderson equalising but it was not enough to take them away from Old Trafford with a point.

With this victory, MU temporarily rose to 5th place on the rankings, with 64 points, 1 point more than Arsenal, but played one more match.

Goal scorer:

MU:Paul Pogba (Pen: 19'; 80')

West Ham:Felipe Anderson (49')

Line-up:

MU:(4-2-3-1): David de Gea; Diogo Dalot, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo; Fred, Paul Pogba; Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial; Romelu Lukaku.

West Ham:(4-2-3-1): Lukasz Fabianski; Pablo Zabaleta, Fabian Balbuena, Angelo Ogbonna, Arthur Masuaku; Declan Rice, Mark Noble; Robert Snodgrass, Manuel Lanzini, Felipe Anderson; Javier Hernandez.

Results of some other matches: