(Football news) Marcus Rashford scored his 100th goal and helped Manchester United secure an invaluable three points in a hard fought victory against West Ham United at Old Trafford. It has been 85 consecutive years since the Red Devils have featured a homegrown player in their squad and it was one of their own who towered high in the 38th minute to score a magnificent header, becoming the 22nd player in the club’s history to score 100 goals. It’s undeniable that Rashford, who struggled last season and was linked with a move away from his boyhood club has finally found his groove and is arguably Erik ten Hag’s first choice striker at the moment.
West Ham were a threat throughout the match but lacked that killer instinct to hurt Manchester United. Moreover, David de Gea pulled off some fine saves, a fitting response to being omitted from Spain’s 55 man preliminary squad for the Qatar World Cup. The Spaniard denied Kurt Zouma and Declan Rice with Diogo Dalot and Harry Maguire also instrumental in keeping the clean sheet. David Moyes has endured a difficult time at Old Trafford, both as a home and away manager and remains without a win in 16 consecutive visits as the Hammers missed out on the opportunity to overtake Liverpool and get to the top half of the table.
The result meant that Manchester United extended their unbeaten run to eight matches across all competitions and are now fifth in the Premier League table, two points behind Newcastle United who have played a game more while Chelsea lost 4-1 to Brentford in the weekend. In team news, Harry Maguire was given his first start in the league since August 13 due to Raphael Varane’s injury and Victor Lindelof’s illness while Anthony Elanga made a rare start due to Antony’s injury and Cristiano Ronaldo was named in the starting lineup for the third time this season. As for West Ham, David Moyes made one change with Craig Dawson replacing Ben Johnson from the team that defeated Bournemouth 2-0.
Speaking after the match, Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said “I think we made a great goal. It was magnificent, the pass from Christian Eriksen and then the header was really a hammer from Marcus Rashford. It's so great as it's a player out of the academy scoring his 100th goal and the 85th anniversary [of the academy] today. So he's really representing the work of Man United and it values the good work that the academy is doing. And Marcus Rashford, tomorrow is his 25th birthday as well. A great present I would say!
“In our philosophy you have to defend with 11. At the start, it was difficult but we are coming more and more to that point. We do it together, the spirit in the team is good, you can see it in every header, they support each other and cover each other. The fans like it as well and you can see the bond that is coming and developing between the teams and the fans. In the second half we have to manage it better. But the spirit we have is fabulous. We have the quality to score goals, but attacking football effectiveness we have to improve that. But we are going in the direction, but being a threat is a long way to go."
West Ham manager David Moyes said “If you look through the game, we have been really close. We deserved to come away with something. I don't think we could have done much more. We gave the ball away a bit too much and that led to Man United's goal but overall we played well. In the second half especially we took our chances. We know what a great keeper De Gea is, he was during my time here, and we hoped he wouldn't save one of those two chances. I'm pleased for De Gea because he is a great guy but disappointed that one of those didn't go in. Jarrod makes a great chance and we are just lacking that little bit of clinical edge. I have to praise our players, we put in a great shift today."
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