West Ham made it seven points from nine available by wiping the floor with Manchester United on Saturday afternoon.
It was the Hammers’ best performance of the season. While Jose Mourinho, Paul Pogba et al’s failings will dominate the headlines but Manuel Pellegrini’s men were outstanding.
We’ve picked out the two biggest positives from that game as well as two areas Pellegrini’s side can still improve…
West Ham’s season has finally begun
Saturday was the day West Ham’s season finally took off. The win at Everton brought relief, the draw against Chelsea was battling, but this victory kickstarted the campaign.
This was Pellegrini’s plan in action; high tempo, attacking football capable to picking apart a side in the Premier League’s top six.
From the off, the Hammers took the game to United. The front three were electric, the midfield were dominant and the defence was largely untroubled.
This was what everyone thought they were getting with Pellegrini. It finally arrived.
Issa Diop was colossal
It was another outstanding performance across the park, but Issa Diop was singled out for particular praise by Jose Mourinho.
Along with fellow new-boy Fabian Balbuena, Diop has put a shaky start to Premier League life behind him to form a solid partnership at the heart of the Hammers backline.
He was physically commanding, mobile and pacy; the type of defender West Ham have needed for quite some time now. Better yet, there is more to come.
West Ham must be clinical
West Ham opened the scoring after just a few minutes but would have failed to add to the scoring were it not for Victor Lindelof’s own goal in the closing stages of the first half.
The Hammers were absolutely dominant in that opening period but did not make or take the chances to completely make the game safe.
When they are on top of games like that, they have to make teams pay.
United nearly got back in
There’s a fine line between game management and letting the other team back into it.
As bad as United were, when the Hammers decided to protect their two-goal lead in the second half, they nearly got back into the game.
Marcus Rashford flicked United to within one goal of tying the game up; although of course Marko Arnautovic made it three just minutes later.
Pellegrini must tread carefully when getting his side to lock the game down; they should never have been in any danger here.
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