Two teams in high spirits after each reaching the Capital One Cup Semi-Finals took to the Old Trafford pitch today as Manchester United looked to take some positives from their last two performances in order to avoid a third successive home loss in the League and gain victory over West Ham. The Hammers face Manchester City in their Semi-Final in January but Sam Allardyce's men had this trip to the North West to contend with first as they looked to join teams like West Brom and Newcastle in securing historic victories at The Theatre of Dreams.
David Moyes made two changes from the side that won at the Britannia Stadium in mid-week as Wayne Rooney returned for United, replacing Anderson. He played up front alongside Danny Welbeck as Robin Van Persie remains sidelined with a groin injury. Their other change came as goalscorer Ashley Young dropped to the bench with Adnan Januzaj taking his place on the left wing. Sam Allardyce handed a start to former United player Ravel Morrison, who had made three substitute appearances for the reds before completing a move to Upton Park. Spaniard Adrian was chosen in goal for the away side as he made his League debut to keep Jussi Jaaskelainen on the bench for the second time this week.
It didn't take long for United to test the Hammers' goalkeeper as they started with intent, winning a corner through Rooney inside the first minute. Januzaj played a short corner, completing a one-two with Rooney before sending a cross into the box that eventually found Cleverley, who hit it first time from 6 yards out. Adrian got down low to his left and made a brilliant save to help justify his first League start.
United had a penalty shout turned down when Januzaj was felled by Noble in the box but the youngster wasn't fazed by the West Ham players' claims he had dived as he then went on to put United 2-0 up moments later. Rooney started the move as he won the ball off a dithering Collins, Welbeck then collected it and gave it to Januzaj on the wing who played a lovely one-two with Welbeck and made a darting run into the box to gather the return pass. The 18 year old showed great composure to fool Collins and cut inside onto his right foot before bending a wonderful shot past Adrian for his first Old Trafford goal.
Januzaj was involved again before half time as he was then found guilty of diving and booked by referee Mike Jones. Replays showed it was the correct decision and United fans will be hoping that the young Belgian can eradicate this from his game as it was a shame for him to spoil an otherwise classy first half individual performance.
The second half saw Januzaj at the heart of the action again early on but this time for the right reasons as he supplied a wonderful cross in from the left that bounced just in front of Welbeck and had to be cleared with a diving header by McCartney. Rooney and Januzaj then displayed great link up play and understanding again when a one-two from the corner allowed the former to cross for Evans. The Northern Ireland defender made good contact with a header but the effort was cleared off the line by Noble to keep the scoreline at 2-0.
Welbeck was replaced by Hernandez just before the hour mark when he picked up a slight knock and the Mexican was almost on the score sheet immediately as he had a well-taken goal wrongly ruled out for offside. Valencia played him in with a through ball and it looked like he was being played just on but it was ruled out to ruin what would have been a brilliant substitute's goal. However, United did eventually get their third through a substitute in the 72nd minute as Young, on for Januzaj seconds earlier, continued his goalscoring form from Wednesday with a fantastic strike to put the home team 3-0 ahead.
The move for the goal was started when a brilliant pass from Rafael had found Valencia in space down the right which gave him time to cut the ball back for Rooney. Rooney then claimed his second assist of the day as he controlled the ball on the turn and laid it off for Young with a delicate touch that allowed the newly confident winger to curl a sublime shot into the top corner with his first touch of the ball.
McCartney escaped a red card for a nasty challenge on Hernandez late on but West Ham finally gave their travelling fans something to cheer about inside the last ten minutes when a through ball from Maiga left Cole clean through on goal and onside after poor defensive positioning from substitute left-back Buttner. Cole was one-on-one with De Gea who could do little to stop the shot as it went straight through his legs and into the net to give the away team a slight consolation. The Hammers then had a late shout for a penalty turned down when a shot from Morrison appeared to be blocked by the arms of Cleverley just inside the box. It would have been a harsh decision to give it though as it seemed difficult for him to get out of the way of the effort and had the away side scored from the resulting spot kick the scoreline would have been a poor reflection on a game where United were rarely troubled in defence.
The game ended 3-1 to United to give them some momentum going into a busy period of matches. Their next challenge is a trip to Hull City on boxing day where Moyes and his men will be hoping for a late Christmas present of three points to help them climb further up the table.
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