Manchester United have clinched the second spot on the Premier League table after picking a point from the goalless draw with West Ham United on Thursday night. Manager of the side, Jose Mourinho said in a post-match interview that although his team set out for a win, when it was past the 75th minute he did not want to take chances so took steps to secure a point.
David DeGea gets his first Golden Gloves for keeping 18 clean sheets, the most for the season. Despite winning Best Player for Manchester United four consecutively seasons, this is the first time the Spaniard has picked the award. He was quick to praise the defenders whom he said helped him achieve the feat.
United made eight (8) changes to the side that lost against Brighton and Hove Albion last week, handing a Premier League starts to Luke Shaw and McTominay with Sanchez and Lingard playing as strikers in a 3-5-2 formation. The draw gives Manchester United 78 points from 37 matches with the last game of the season scheduled for Sunday, May 13 against Watford at home – Old Trafford.
There were near misses especially in the second half with West Ham’s Marco Arnautovic coming close to breaking the deadlock but for the defensive works of Chris Smalling. In the 79th minute, the striker beat the offside trap of Manchester United, chested the ball in the 18-yard box but fired wide to the relief of the United defence.
In the 89th minute, a scuffle broke out between Paul Pogba and Mark Noble following a tackle on the latter. Noble, the diminutive of the two, forcefully bumped into Pogba with his chest and held him by the throat. Pogba, on the other hand, locked Noble in a hugging nature and pushed him to the side. This situation brought play to a standstill after players from both sides rushed to break up the pair.
Referee Jon Moss booked both players and called captains of both sides to have a word with them. Pogba and Noble smiled at each other and exchanged shirts at the end of the match as a sign of forgetting the earlier scuffle. The game ended with Ashley Young coming on in the dying minutes to mark his 500th club appearance of which 200 were in a Manchester United shirt.
The lineup for Manchester United was David DeGea in post, Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling, Jones, as the back three, Valencia (C), McTominay, Pogba, Herrera, Shaw as midfielders with Lingard and Sanchez as the striking pair. On the bench was Romero, Martial, Rashford, Bailly, Young, Mata and Blind as the substitutes.
The host team of had Adrian, Zabaleta, Ogbonna, Rice Creswell, Masuaku, Noble (C), Kouyate, Joao Mario, Lanzini and Arnautovic playing. On the bench, they had Joe Hart returning from injury, Cullen, Evra, Obiang, Fernandez, Hugil and Andy Carroll.
The final game of the season for all Premier League teams is on Sunday May 13 with kick off at 3pm BST at all stadia.
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