A second-string Manchester United side was stunned today in their 3rd round Carabao Cup loss at home against West Ham United. Hammers manager David Moyes can sleep well tonight, safe in the satisfaction that he knocked his former club out of a cup competition.
It was also his first win against United since the club sacked him in April of 2014. A long undefeated run against the Hammers was finally brought undone as United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rested almost all of his big names in this second match against the East-Londoners in four days.
Congrats to West Ham United, for their win today and their advancing through to the 4th round (it is the 4th round right?) of the EFL/League/Capital One/Carabao/Who Honestly Gives a Shit Except For Some Manchester City Fans Cup!
Good luck in the soccer version of the CBI!— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) September 22, 2021
Eager for vengeance from the 2-1 loss in the league on Sunday, West Ham dominated the early stages of this game, which saw both sides make 10+ changes to their starting squads.
It was one-way traffic for the opening ten minutes as Jarrod Bowen, Andriy Yarmolenko, and Alex Kral all squandered chances to give the Hammers the lead.
Their dominance paid off just before the ten-minute mark when right-back Ryan Fredericks beat Alex Telles one on one and attacked the byline, before pulling it back for Manuel Lanzini at the top of the box, who gave the away side a well deserved early 1-0 lead.
Falling behind early then served to snap the weakened United side to life and they were very unlucky not to be awarded a penalty, minutes later when replays showed Jesse Lingard was fouled by Hammers captain Mark Noble.
Despite creating chance after chance, they could not seem to finish off their opportunities as West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola simply had a great match.
Around the hour mark, Solskjaer decided the second string side wasn’t working at all, and brought on forward Mason Greenwood, who immediately made an impact on the game.
The Golden Boy Award candidate came close to equalizing several times.
The hero of the two sides league clash on Sunday, Jesse Lingard, was brought off for Bruno Fernandes, but not even the Portugese Magnifico could make a difference for the Red Devils.
A desperate Fernandes tried to take advantage of a drop ball situation right at the death, but it wasn’t to be as West Ham celebrated their first win over United in a very long time, and secured their place in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
And for David Moyes, it was revenge, a dish best served cold.
Post-match, Noble was tongue in cheek when asked about the Lingard penalty incident:
“He dived, I told him off for screaming. He didn’t do that at our place, funnily enough.”
Noble went on to joke further that Lingard must have learned to dive at United.