MANCHESTER United's star winger Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 18th goal of the season but then missed a penalty as the Reds suffered a surprise defeat at West Ham.
Ronaldo put the visitors into an early lead and had the chance to double the advantage with a second-half spot-kick.
After he put his effort wide, Anton Ferdinand scored the leveller after 77 minutes before Matthew Upson snatched the winner eight minutes from time.
Alan Curbishley’s reign as Hammers boss had begun a year previously with a 1-0 victory over United at Upton Park but it was not long before the Londoners had looked doomed to the drop.
The brilliance of Carlos Tevez changed that picture with some remarkable performances before the South American decamped for Old Trafford after his last-day winner there had made the Hammers safe.
No wonder therefore that the Argentinian was greeted as a returning hero with an ovation and a song, which was put into context by the polite applause for the elder Ferdinand and the cat-calls for the rest of the visiting squad. It was to prove a red herring however as the day belonged to others.
Inevitably Ronaldo had received the loudest abuse but it was the United fans who were cheering after he kept his remarkable scoring streak going.
Chance
The home side had just squandered a gilt-edged chance when Hayden Mullins shot cannoned back off a post to the recalled Mark Noble, who was horrified to fire over from 10 yards with the goal at his mercy.
United made him regret that even more when they turned their first attack of note into Ronaldo’s opener. Louis Saha began the move with a ball to find Ryan Giggs in space and the Portugal international out-paced George McCartney to head home the cross.
Referee Mike Dean ruled that Ferdinand’s challenge on Nolberto Solano on the edge of the box near a touchline had been legal to the home fans’ fury but the Peruvian almost conjured up an equaliser in the 36th minute.
The ex-Newcastle man latched on to the loose ball after Freddie Ljungberg appeared to have been impeded and instinctively let fly from distance. United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, who was continuing to deputise for the injured Edwin van der Sar, was alert to the danger however and produced an acrobatic tip-over.
Solano, who put a free-kick just past a post, was forced off by a leg injury five minutes into the second period and was replaced by John Pantsil. Scott Parker had been hurt in the first half and was replaced in the 56th minute by Anton Ferdinand, previously absent since October because of a hamstring injury.
Changes
Patrice Evra, one of three changes to the side that had demolished Sunderland 4-0 on Boxing Day, was then clattered by Pantsil, who was booked. The African then caught Nemanja Vidic with a raised boot right in front of a linesman, but was punished only by a free-kick.
United’s first change came in the 64th minute and it was Tevez who made way for Anderson and the South American, who had stormed off in a huff following one early withdrawal while a Hammer, could not have complained. He had made little impact.
Mullins was booked for a foul on Ronaldo who then missed a penalty. Ex-United man Jonathan Spector was adjudged to have handled in the box under pressure from Anderson but although Ronaldo’s spot-kick did not lack power it flew wide of Green’s right-hand post to keep the home side in the game.
Curbishley took that as the perfect cue to send on Ashton in place of Ljungberg for the final 20 minutes and a spell of intense pressure conjured up an equaliser in the 77th minute when Anton Ferdinand rose to head a Noble corner past Kuszczak.
The home side continued to attack and Upson repeated Ferdinand’s trick by heading a Noble free-kick beyond the United goalkeeper.
What is your verdict on the game? Have your say.
West Ham 2 United 1
December 29, 2007
Comments
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As soon as I heard Rooney had a virus I THOUGHT ******** Giggs has to be the biggest passenger on any ship Anderson and Nani on the bench both should have started.
West HAM AGAIN WHAT A BLOODY DISGRACE
Fergie is to blame he never learns
what a bag of crap.
SAF's love affair with Fletch has got to end, he might as well play with ten men.
Somehow I think Fletch and Brown were under test, some test losing points.
No Rooney on the bench! Juat what is going on?
Now some plaudits for West Ham. They ran our fabled backline ragged.
But then all teams play with inspiration when they meet ManU, that is something the head that wears the crown has to always contend with.
Absolutely disgusting performance from the team,why keep on fielding Giggs instead of Nani? we needed to keep the ball in midfield,Carrick could have done that and Anderson as well. We were nowhere near the PL leaders, 3 points are gone, the gooners, pool and chavski are in the hunt more than ever, courtesy of a weak performance and lack of concentration on the penalty spot. Overall West Ham deserved to win the game, but we let them manage to deserve it, i hate to loose!!!
Only heard the radio commentary from the 2nd half but sounds like we got sucker-punched in the last 10 minutes. Why does it always seem to be West Ham that are the team that does it? Bitters will secretly hoping Arsenal walk over them as usual now to help fulfil their united losing ambitions for the season
Fletcher and Hargreaves? 4-5-1? Nice one Fergie...
dump brown and saha and bring in a poacher! im a paraplegic and i could have had a better game than saha today! come on... he was a waste of space! where was wayne?
A truly inept performance from all on show. Ronaldo drifted in and out of the game, Tevez merely a passenger, Saha looked disinterested, Giggs...was he playing..???
We were second best all over the park today and to be honest if we had taken all three points it would of been a travesty!!!
Let's see what the response is come New Years day. My guess is you wont see another performance like todays!!!
Dreadful. Bunch of Santas giving WHU a late present!could have stepped up a gear to finish them off but never did.Why rest rooney? he scored at Sunderland and his confidence would be up. did he really need to rest?
One of the worst united display i can remember. Dont understand Alex decision to rested rooney after his performance last game. To played fletcher over Anderson to partner Hargreaves also proved to be disaster.
How Fletcher remain on the field for 90 min despite being absolutely useless in middle of the park, is beyond me. He is clearly not a united quality.
Simply rubbish. I was praying the score would remain 1-0 all through this game since we did not show any sign of improving our lifeless and dull game in the first half.. Anderson, Nani on the bench while Fletcher starts? Rooney out? Giggs remains even if he plays like shit? West Ham deserved all points. Did any of you notice that most of the goals scored against us were either from set pieces or crosses?
Rubbished game and rubbished performance. The whole team played rubbished. I am really disappointed by the way they played today. Yes, trough the course of the year they may play poorly, but this kind of performance after they took over Arsenal is simply not acceptable. The whole team was not properly arranged, too many bad passes, too many lapses in the middle, this was too much to handle.
Well SAF you virtually threw away this game!
Yet again 4-5-1!!
It doesn't work!
We created very little and never really controlled the game!
Seriously missing Scholes!!
We probably got what we deserved and I hate to say that!
We were not really up to it!!
(How is that?!)
Extremely gutted that we gave away game!
Unbelievable result!!!!
we need to drop saha. he had a shocker today... especially giving away the ball almost in our box in the first half! its a pity wayne wasnt able to play today... surely he would have caused more problems when playiong with tevez than louis did? it just wasnt our day
If United don't retain the title the headline should read "Fergie's Arrogance Gifts Title to Rivals". The hubris of his squad selection at Bolton and W.Ham both got their just rewards. Apparently it's more important to SAF to pull off the hoax that the Scottish godson is a United quality starting midfielder than retaining the title. Points lost due to pure arrogance.
How can this happen!
We allowed them to have too much on the ball and then let them come onto us late in the game!
Almost nonchalence at times and how much did we create!
We didn't dictate the tempo of the gane and should have pushed on in the 1st to finish it!
Why westham??!
The rentboys will be larfin in their pils!
Poor performance deserved nothing from the game. WHY was Rooney rested he can play every game and we missed him today, both saha and tevez were poor. Also no players on the post for both goals? Cant understand it. Missed Fergies influence from the bench.
Why do we do it everytime against West Ham? Has Fergie not learnt anything over the past games with them? Before all the muppets are on here complaining about Fletcher, he did ok. We didnt loose because of him. Ronaldo took an awful penalty. Giggs was as bad as i have seen in a long time, Nani should of come on for him. Why was Tevez taken off when he was rested the game before and Saha is not fully fit? And why was Rooney not involved? not long left in a game we have to score and we bring O'Shea on? Giggs needs to be dropped for the next few games. If we had won today it would of put big pressure on Arsenal. We should be beating West ham home and away.
Well, a little voice told me that after Sunderland we got carried away about our winning streak, and were bound to slip on a banana skin. I missed the first 15 minutes but what I saw for the rest of the first half was a determined WH side that won most of the balls in midfield, and should have been level by half time if not for Kucskcak, who put in a great performance. On the day, Fergie got it wrong. Why Fletcher (who only impresses when playing for Scotland) and not Anderson (who made a difference when he came on)? Rooney was sorely missed, as WH clearly got the better of Tevez, who was ineffective. When Ronaldo is subdued, as he was today, Rooney usually takes centre stage, as he did against Sunderland. The writing was on the wall at half-time, but Fergie did not ring the changes. Yes, we did play better, and the penalty miss could have changed everything - but to be honest WH deserved it. They overran us with their fans behind them, while we did not make the most of the few very good openings we created at times. But let not be too downhearted - to come out of the holiday period with maximum points is probably unprecedented. Now lets murder Birmingham.......
Why was Fletcher started in preference of Anderson? Why did we have two defensive midfielders? How bad was Saha? How didn't we win? I guess these are just a few of the questions that baffled us today, and to be honest, I have no answer.
I said earlier that the game would be decided on how we started the game, and we certainly didnt start well. West Ham came out all guns blazing, and to be fair our goal was out of the blue. Against the run of play. To be fair I don't think we deserved to win today and full credit to West Ham.
We cannot afford to sit on a 1-0 lead and try and "shut up shop" and see the game out. This was our problem today. United Played far too casually and expected to see the game out. We didn't create enough chances in front of goal, and inevitably, and deservedly so, we lost.
My main concern now is the form of Ronaldo. How big an impact will it have on his morale, and more importantly, his form? Missing a penalty is one thing; but missing a penalty and then going on to lose a game knowing that your penalty could have won your team the game is quite another. I really do hope Cristiano comes back a better player, picks himself up and proves the doubters wrong; if not, I have a niggling fear that this penalty miss will have a detrimental effect on his form for the next couple of games; as he wasnt the same after his miss. He has played virtually every game this season, and I feel we are relying on him far too much, he definitely needs a rest. Fergie got the selection and the tactics wrong today, and we paid for it. Sitting on a 1-0 lead for over half the game and expecting to win is like playing with fire, and we got burned alright.
Saha had another chance today and was a big let down. Far too few touches on the ball and Robert Green certainly didnt have much to do. Tevez had far too much hype before the game and I think that got to him and he was also duly taken off.
Fletcher was another let down today. He started off ok, but then faded and became anonymous. The only thing worse than starting Carrick is starting Fletcher, and the sooner Fergie realises this the better. We needed a mix of attacking and defending in the centre of the park, which Anderson and Hargreaves have shown in the last few weeks, but with two defensive players in the midle of the park we were never going to win. Our attacking prowess was limited to the wings and there was nothing coming through the middle which allowed West Ham to control the Midfield.
We needed more attacking options from the bench. We were 2-1 down with four minutes to go and who does fergie bring on? Why, John O' Shea of course! We needed another striker/ attacker on the bench. We definitely missed Rooney; and losing Sir Alex also didnt help, but this is not time for making excuses at such a crucial stage of the season. We should be rolling over teams like these and should have been expecting maximum points over this period, but it was not to be.
Rant aside, I feel our best player today was Hargreaves. Other than that I feel we were let down by our attack. There were not enough chances created.
Yet again we have lost to our 'bogey' team. Lets hope for a much improved display against Birmingham at home next. Lets also hope Everton do us a favour tonight and beat Arsenal, however if Arsenal do win and go top tonight, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We shot ourselves in the foot and didnt deserve to win.
Another reality check. Too many over-rated passengers in the squad. When our best players are not available (or not picked )we usually struggle and today was a case in point. Arsenal must be favourites for the League for the simple reason that their fringe players are better than ours. Unless we keep our best players fit and available for virtually every game and/or Arsenal hit injuries, we wont retain the title. If they are ahead or even in touch, after the African Nations we will lose it because we still cannot match their depth of quality.
poor defeat but carry on regardless,why wasnt anderson and nani playing from the start,fletcher for 90 mins just dont make sence.
Dissapointed but wont get on ronnies back as he has to have a penalty saved or miss like he did some times,i think 18 goals already says he class.
Now lets await the bitters comments.
Bloody pathetic...we have now
lost against 3 teams that we
should have eaten..oh dear dear.. Some heads should roll.???????..Starting at the
top..DISTGUSTED IN THAILAND.
ARTHUR DAWKINS....
What is common knowledge to all..start with a weak "engine room" and you always give the other team a chance. Why did Fletcher start?!!! Where was Anderson?!!! Fletcher only flails around and creates nothing, which puts greater pressure on everyone else and allowed WH to boss the game!!!
People will blame Saha, Giggs even Ron but it's the engine room where the game was lost!!! Way to go Fergie...brillant!!...start the "godchild! now we have brought Chelsea and Liverpool back in the race!!! Fool!!!
Giggs was so bad i can not put it into words. The fact that Rooney was not on the bench and Tevez was taken off are what you should be talking about. Stop blaming Fletcher for everything he was better than Giggs. Fergie,Giggs and Ronaldo's awful penalty coust us not Fletcher.