Coming out of a tight draw against Liverpool (0-0) last weekend, Manchester United hoped to resume their march forward against West Ham and thus reconnect with the taste of victory. Yet masters of possession, Erik Ten Hag’s men once again bit the dust in the championship (2-0), punished by goals from Jarrod Bowen (72nd) and Mohamed Kudus (78th) in the second half.
With this new poor performance, the Mancunian club temporarily slips to eighth place, ahead of its opponent of the day. Worse still, the team from the North of England has just conceded its thirteenth defeat of the season in all competitions, its worst total of losses before Christmas since the 1930-31 season as revealed by OptaJoe. A catastrophic end to the year for Marcus Rashford’s partners, relegated six points from the top 4 and who have not scored in four games, a first since 1992.