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MOTD: West Ham United 3-2 Manchester United

By on May 10, 2016

All aspects of Upton Park were on display as West Ham United bid farewell to their ground of 112 years in a triumphant comeback victory over Manchester United: the good, the ugly, and finally, the glorious.

Pre-match proceedings were marred with a violent attack on United’s team bus, an unpleasant reminder of Upton Park’s threatening past; kickoff was delayed by forty-five minutes.

Yet a thrilling 3-2 turnaround by Slaven Bilic’s men overshadowed the portentous start to the occasion and the celebrations continued long into the night with an extravagant after-party to honor Upton Park.

Winston Reid scored the last goal at the ground just ten minutes from time to complete West Ham’s turnaround after Michail Antonio’s header had pulled the home-side level.

Anthony Martial scored twice early in the second half after Diagra Sakho scored early go-ahead goal for West Ham and only Martial’s brilliance lifted United out of mediocrity.  The Frenchman scored first two shots on target to make him the first United player to enter double-digits in the league this season, although West Ham had ample opportunities to extend their first-half lead.

United’s inability to create chances typified their dreadful season and dealt a deadly blow to their Champions League hopes.  United could quite simply not afford to lose either of their last two games of the season, yet Louis van Gaal was unable to pull another feat of escapism just when he needed it most.

In total, United have scored a pitiful forty-six league goals with just one game to go this season; by contrast, they bagged sixty-two goals last season, sixty-four in David Moyes’ only season in charge and eighty-six in 2012/2013.

Comparing United’s current front-line to that of their title winning 2012/2013 season under Sir Alex Ferguson makes for dire reading for Van Gaal sympathizers.  In 2012, their strike force of Robin Van Persie, Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez shipped a total of forty-nine goals and cost just under £60 million.

Van Gaal’s front-line this season: Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Memphis Depay (later replaced by Marcus Rashford), cost more than £127 million to assemble, including two of the club’s three most expensive ever signings, and has scored just twenty-seven goals this season, thirty-one including Rashford.

Mata, to be fair, set up both of Martial’s goals tonight and has been by far United’s most prolific midfielder this season, playing a direct part in eleven goals.

Still, though, that pales in comparison to Payet, who has been involved in as many goals in his last twelve league appearances.  Both of West Ham’s late goals came from the Frenchman’s set pieces and the midfielder was easily the man of the match.

West Ham dominated the opening stages of the game and Manuel Lanzini sliced through United’s back-line down the left to set up Cheikhou Kouyate’s lovely curling finish just ten minutes in.  United couldn’t get out of their own half and Antonio had another goal chalked off near the end of the first period.

The Red Devils ended the half with just one shot on target; their lowest total this season.

Juan Mata assisted Martial’s equalizer on the other side of the half, overlapping Rashford and cutting a low cross back for Martial in a rare United breakaway.  Twenty minutes later, Ashford fed Martial in down the left and the young striker tucked a cool finish into the back of the net at the near post.

Yet West Ham rebounded, with Antonio towering up to equalize from Payet’s pinpoint cross and Reid powering home Payet’s deep free-kick just five minutes later, to the raucous appreciation of the home crowd.

Homepage photo credit: joshjdss, via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.