Marcus Rashford scored his 100th goal for Manchester United as they clung on for a hard-fought 1-0 victory over West Ham at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Manchester United had seen off Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham at Old Trafford this season but struggled to immediately scale those heights against the Hammers, who grew into the game as the hosts failed to seize control of the contest.
Manchester United football academy product, Rashford rose above the West Ham defence to dispatch a towering 38th-minute header as he became the 22nd player to reach 100 goals for the club.
West Ham were a threat throughout but crucially lacked that killer final pass or finish, with inspired back-post defending from Diogo Dalot, wonderful saves from David de Gea to deny Kurt Zouma and Declan Rice, and a last-gasp miss from Jarrod Bowen ensuring the Hammers’ late rally ended fruitless.
It was another Old Trafford defeat for West Ham boss David Moyes, who remains winless from 16 visits as a Premier League manager, as the Hammers missed the chance to move above Liverpool into the top half of the table.
For Manchester United, this gritty victory extended their unbeaten run under Erik ten Hag to eight games in all competitions and lifted them up to fifth in the Premier League, a point outside of the top four.
We made a great goal, magnificent. Great cross from Eriksen, and Rashford really hammered his header! Second half, we have to manage it better, that’s clear. It turned into, I call it a tennis match, one end to the other – but we have great defenders, and a great keeper.”
The Manchester United manager bristles slightly at suggestions United were hanging on. “We played Thursday, West Ham rested their team [against Silkeborg], so they had more power in the end. We had to manage the game. The moment for Fred was there, when he hit the post.”
He is also not keen to discuss Harry Maguire in detail: “The team do their job – defend the goal – together, as a back four but also, the team defend as 11 players.”
Ten Hag is more effusive on Diogo Dalot. “I’m really happy with his development. He’s growing from game to game, he’s really good in possession.”
On Casemiro: “You can see why he wins Champions Leagues. He is the absolute top of world football.”
On Ronaldo: “he did quite well – we asked him to drop deeper, make runs and move defenders around.”
Reacting to Pep Guardiola’s claim that United are “coming back”, he said: “The spirit we have is fabulous, we have the quality to score goals. But [to catch City] we have a long way to go.”
“I quite enjoy these pitchside chats with the pundits getting involved – better than a roll-call of questions from Geoff Shreeves, for me, Clive.“
Rashforf on his part, doesn’t think the team played their best against the Hammers.
“I don’t think we played our best today,” says Marcus Rashford.
“David was excellent, I don’t know how we saved Zouma’s header. It was tough, but it feels good to come through it.
He is shown a breakdown of his 100 United goals, seven of which are headers.
“I need to score more! I’ve got a decent jump, I just need to work on attacking the ball, getting in the right areas.”
On his return to form this season, he adds: “It’s a completely different energy around the whole club [this season], and I feel more motivated now. I’m in a better headspace – I struggled at times [last year], more mental things, not my performance but things off the pitch – that’s the biggest difference.”
