Man Utd 3

West Ham 0

United emerged as deserved winners in a tough encounter at OT in a match in which despite not dominating, we scored 3 goals and kept a clean sheet. Onana had a quiet afternoon and I can only recall him making one save throughout the 90 minutes as the West Ham players failed (luckily) to exploit the chances they created.

United went ahead with a great goal by Hojlund. A couple of blogs ago I commented that I am still to be convinced about him. He may have read my comment and upped it up to prove me wrong! The way he created space for himself and the shot with his weak foot (his right) shows that the boy is growing in confidence and as everyone knows, confidence for strikers is a critical success factor.

West Ham did try to equalise but a combination of some decent defending and poor finishing let them down. Another player growing in confidence is Garnacho. ETH seems finally convinced that Garnacho on the right is a no brainer when the alternative is Antony! The second goal showed exactly this growing confidence and despite the very clear deflection, it was deserved and the boy was full of running and positive stuff all afternoon. Garnacho got further reward for his shift when he scored the third and final goal.

The only concern today was the Martinez injury. Make no mistake about it, he is, in my opinion, the only player we have who helps us to come out from defence with some purpose and is also our best defender. Keeping him fit till the end of the season is the only way United can hope to get a top 4 position.

Villa next weekend will be a tough match and a test of our progress but before, we will commemorate the flowers of Manchester. Forever remembered…NUMQUAM MORIBIMUR!