Manchester United 1 West Ham 1
This was not the first time Manchester United failed to turn dominance into victory and not the first time José Mourinho was sent off.
United will again rue their lack of ruthlessness and Mourinho may regret the 27th-minute incident when a water bottle was sent careering in anger at Paul Pogba's booking for diving by Jonathan Moss, which was actually the correct decision by the referee.
Mourinho received a one-match ban for verbal misconduct towards Mark Clattenburg during October's draw here with Burnley. He may well be handed a similar punishment – at minimum – for his behaviour yesterday, with Moss also the referee who showed him a red card against West Ham United last season at the Boleyn Ground.
All of this should not distract from another disappointing result. Towards the end, Henrikh Mkhitaryan hit the right post and Jesse Lingard finished but this was adjudged offside. Pogba went close with a shot Darren Randolph, who had a fine afternoon, saved impressively.
But despite the grandstand finish United might have lost at the death when the Ashley Fletcher forced David De Gea to use his chest to stop a close-range effort.
United are now a yawning 11 points behind Chelsea and any title-challenging hopes are distant ones. For the third time this season United had been caught slumbering at kick-off. The previous two led to goals by Chelsea (after 40 seconds) and Fenerbahce (two minutes) and 90 seconds were gone when United went behind.
Dimitri Payet lifted a free-kick in from the right and Diafra Sakho eased ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to head home.
The Swede should still have done better. Or, perhaps an actual defender – Phil Jones or Marcos Rojo – might have been detailed to mark the centre-forward. Mourinho was reduced to waving his men back to restart quickly and United were behind far too soon.
Slick move
But the home side fought back and took the contest to the Hammers and, 19 minutes later, equalised.
This was a slick move executed via the intelligence of Pogba and Ibrahimovic. When the Frenchman looked up he saw the No9 making a smart dart into space. Pogba landed the chip plum on Ibrahimovic’s head and he beat Randolph for a ninth this term.
Next came Mourinho’s latest fall-out with an official. When Pogba went down following a Mark Noble challenge it appeared the midfielder had been wrongly booked for a dive. This had Mourinho incandescent but replays showed Moss was correct. Moments before Payet had bought a free-kick when Ander Herrera seemed to make zero contact and this had also made Mourinho cross. This might have added to his fury at Pogba’s yellow card yet, really, he should have calmed himself. Instead, a water bottle went flying and off he went, though where to was a mystery.
Each side had chances after the break. Rashford saw Rudolph save a shot with his legs. Later, Lingard caused the goalkeeper to deny him to his left.
Moments earlier Moss turned down a West Ham penalty despite Payet clearly hitting Marcos Rojo’s left hand.
United’s XI chosen showed six changes. Out went Wayne Rooney, Mkhitaryan, Luke Shaw, Sergio Romero, Michael Carrick and Daley Blind. In came De Gea, Marcos Rojo, Matteo Darmian, Rashford, Lingard and Ander Herrera.
There was a place, too, for Bastian Schweinsteiger on the bench – a first time in the 18 under the manager .
As the second period began, Rashford troubled West Ham along the left. Then, Antonio tussled with Darmian – conceding a foul – and later banged in a cross that Marcos Rojo deflected for a corner. Payet, again, was precise when dropping the ball on Sakho’s head but the effort was misdirected.
Payet was the visitors’ top performer. A free-kick from a right-hand angle became a snap shot that De Gea scrambled to save. On 64 minutes Mourinho took off Juan Mata and Rashford for Rooney and Mkhitaryan. The captain immediately had a chance but in trying to curl a finish inside Randolph’s left post managed only to cede the ball.
Guardian sport
