West Ham 2, Manchester United 0
Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus scored second half goals as West Ham condemned Manchester United to a 13th defeat of the season.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was the worst start to the season by United since 1930/31 when they lost 16 games by Christmas – a season when they finished bottom of the league.
Manager Erik Ten Hag said: “We created three good chances but we didn’t take them.
And he added: “One moment of switching off and we’re losing the game.
“We have to take responsibility for this. We had injuries but the players on the pitch were good enough to win the game.
“We have the scoring ability but we have to be clinical to score a goal.
“We have to believe that we can do it.”
The Hammers were comfortable throughout and despite the Reds edging the first half, proved to be the more effective side in the second half after David Moyes’ tactic of resting first team players in their Carabao Cup defeat against Liverpool paid off.
United had issues of their own, though, and 19-year-old Willy Kambwala was handed a debut alongside 35-year-old veteran defender Jonny Evans with Raphael Varane reportedly unwell.
Goals continue to be an issue with United and Rasmus Hojlund, who couldn’t get much change out of Kurt Zouma, drew another Premier League blank before being replaced by equally ineffective Marcus Rashford before the hour mark.
The service up front was embarrassing though and United continued to look a disjoined side – United youth product Kobbie Mainoo at least tested Alphonse Areola from outside the box.
But United could not cope with former boss David Moyes’ tactical switches in the second half and Jarrod Bowen broke the deadlock after 72 minutes after Andre Onana had blocked his initial effort but couldn’t stop the rebound from the England man.
Six minutes later it was game over when Mainoo lost the ball to Kudus who exchanged passes with false nine Lucas Paqueta before driving the second past Onana.
And to the obvious disappointment of the travelling fans there just didn’t seem to be any way that United could come back from that.