1. After a woeful first half, where West Ham bossed the proceedings and United were lucky to have conceded just once, United produced yet another comeback in the second half and played some scintillating attacking football on the way. At the end, it was a comfortable result against a team which had won its previous four matches in the Premiership and would have climbed to third if they won. The main positive is that with this win, United go fourth and even if they lose positions by the time this round of matches is complete, we would still have a match in hand to recuperate. With the same number of matches played, United are two points adrift from Liverpool and Tottenham who are top. Given the amount of points we lost in the first few matches, it is quite a feat and hopefully we continue to improve our performances and gain some momentum.
2. The first half performance must have concerned Ole as much as it did the fans. The players made a number of elementary mistakes and they were more often than not beaten to the ball by the hungrier West Ham players. The introduction of Fernandes and Rashford at halftime slowly turned the tide in United’s favour. When Martial suffered his injury and Greenwood moved to occupy the central striker position, the game changed. Soon after, Pogba scored a gem of a goal and from then on there was always going to be one winner. Rashford is in the best form I’ve seen him and at times he was unplayable again against West Ham but the real difference is triggered by Fernandes. It is almost worrying the extent of influence Bruno has on this United team. His energy in midfield, incisive passing, awareness, pressing high up the pitch and link-up play are now critical for Ole to continue to grind out results. I cannot imagine United having to play without him. And the results show.
3. Mason Greenwood is off the mark. Mason scored his first goal of the Premiership season and this is the best news for United from the West Ham match, when it comes to individuals. Only Cavani has the same goal-scoring capabilities as Greenwood from all the United players and we certainly missed his goals this season. Strikers thrive on goals and if Ole can manage to give a run of games to young Greenwood, I am sure that he will continue to find the net regularly. With Martial injured, I can see United playing a trio of Rashford-Cavani-Greenwood upfront and if that combination clicks, we will be very hard to beat and can always score one more than the opposition. Mason had a rollercoaster start to the season but he looks sharp now and will be a huge asset for us. Watch this space…
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GGMU!
Article contributed by Contributor Roderick. Comments are appreciated on our Facebook page.