Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and Manchester United were definitely not good yesterday in their 2-1 home win over West Ham United. They were, however, very lucky and United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said so after the match.
Solskjaer admits that his side was so off on Saturday that he would have been happy to have even get a draw as a result from the fixture. The Norwegian also added that winning a game his team should not have is essentially balanced out by previous games, where they deserved points, but did not obtain them.
“We got away with it, you can put it that way,” Solskjaer said of a victory that was only made possible by another out of this world performance from goalie David de Gea.
“I know it’s not easy because we played a game on Wednesday and there were a few changes that we had to make. So, we got away with it. They deserved their goal, but then again we’re allowed to have a good goalkeeper.”
The Hammers dominated all of the game’s major statistics, except the only that really matters- the final score. United, who were probably preoccupied a bit with their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie with FC Barcelona, were only able to score via two Paul Pogba penalty kicks; there not able to get anything going from open play.
“Sometimes you get more than you deserve and today is one of those nights,” Solskjaer continued.
“Watford was one of them as well but then Wolves and Arsenal, we should have won, so it evens itself out in the long run.”
“We were lucky today to get away with three points. Even a draw at one point I would have taken. We’re lucky it wasn’t Barcelona but West Ham played well and played better than us but we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world.”
The fact that he mentioned Barca there does seem to confirm the theory that United were distracted yesterday in a trap game, and that could be why they were so off against the Irons. After all, Barca midfielder (and one time United transfer target) Arturo Vidal admitted that his side were distracted by the tie with United after their shock draw with Huesca.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.