Man Utd won their sixth consecutive match in the Premier League

Substitute Mata's goal and Ibrahimovic's offside goal helped Man Utd beat host 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 were effective 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 their sixth consecutive win 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 gave the French player a red card, sending him off. Short of players, West Ham could no longer maintain their previous attacking style.

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% of the ball 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, coach Mourinho decided to make two changes in attack when entering the second half, Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford came on to replace Matteo Darmian and Jesse Lingard. The adjustment of the "Special One" brought satisfactory results when in the 63rd minute, Rashford eliminated the two West Ham defenders before passing the ball to Mata to finish with one touch past goalkeeper Randolph to open the score.

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 situation with goalkeeper De Gea three minutes earlier, the match might have taken a different turn.

Rashford was the standout player of the match. 10 minutes after assisting Mata, he continued to have a pass to set up Pogba. However, the French midfielder missed the chance to double the gap when his shot went 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 gently hit the post, the English striker could have had a goal of his own.

In a losing position, coach Slaven Bilic sent Andy Carroll onto the field with the aim of forcing West Ham to switch to high ball play to find an equalizer. However, when the 1m91 tall 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 top-ranked Chelsea while having played one more match.

According to VNE