WEST HAM 0, MANCHESTER UNITED 0
A goalless draw at the London Stadium handed David De Gea the Premier League Golden Glove for his 18th clean sheet this season as West Ham played out some typical end of season fayre against Manchester United.
A point confirmed United’s second place finish but left the Reds 19 points behind champions Manchester City with a game to go in this season’s Premier League campaign – if the gap remains 19 points after Sunday it would potentially mean another top flight record for the Blues despite United’s highest guaranteed Premier League finish since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
United host Watford on Sunday to bring down the curtain on the Premier League season but they were denied all three points after De Gea’s opposite number Adrian pulled off a trio of important saves.
Ahead of the FA Cup final against his former club Chelsea in nine days time, Reds boss Jose Mourinho made eight changes and deployed three central defenders following the disappointing defeat at Brighton last Friday.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were noticeably dropped after public criticism by Mourinho last week. Only David De Gea, Chris Smalling, and Paul Pogba retained their places in the side with Cup final auditions for the likes of Jesse Lingard, Alexis Sanchez, Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, and Scott McTominay.
Lingard was in good form, testing Adrian three times, and the Hammers ‘keeper also denied Sanchez after Antonio Valencia had found him with a cut-back before turning Shaw’s follow-up onto the post after a moderately exciting first period.
Shaw also had an altercation with Andy Carroll as tempers briefly flared in the second half which was a more typical end of season affair, with a late confrontation between Mark Noble and Paul Pogba after the United midfielder had fouled his West Ham counterpart.
By the end of the game, Mourinho had opted to preserve the point – only bringing on Rashford in the 74th minute and bringing on Eric Bailly and Ashley Young to close out the game – while ex-United boss David Moyes’ West Ham side had been hardly in a mood to attack United despite confirming their own Premier League safety recently.