Wasteful Hammers undone by 13 minutes of United class

West Ham 1 Man United 3

It's good to see 2000 fans singing along to Bubbles at the start and even that socially-distanced number of fans generate a little atmosphere. I'm watching this on Sky having missed out on the ballot. It's a great start by the Irons, pressing United back from the kick-off. Bowen has the ball in the net early on but it's correctly ruled out for offside. But already the Hammers are looking much better than against Villa.

Bowen is having a storming game and goes around Telles to cross for Fornals. The midfielder heads into the side-netting when he should have maybe scored. Fornals then pokes a shot against the post after a Bowen cross has been laid-off by Haller.

SUPER TOMAS SOUCEK

The Hammers take the lead from a corner. With the United defence watching Rice heads across goal and Soucek pokes it home at the far post. Finally there's authentic cheering at the London Stadium. It should be two when Fornals plays through Haller. Sebastian rounds the goalkeeper, beats a defender and then, with the goal gaping, slips over as if shot by the same sniper who got Jack Grealish. 

Wan-Bissaka has to make a saving tackle to deny Bowen. Martial then has United's first shot on target after 44 minutes. At the interval you wonder of West Ham will rue missing so many chances as United bring on Fernandes and Rashford for the second half.

The Hammers again start well as Haller finds Coufal wide on the right and Bowen just fails to convert the full back's low cross. It's then that United produce a devastating 13 minutes. 

KICKED INTO TOUCH

Henderson kicks the ball down the line and David Moyes instantly appeals that the ball has curled over the touchline. The ref and lino ignore him, Fernandes crosses and Pogba fires a rocket into the corner. Looking at the replays on Match of the Day it's amazing VAR didn't disallow it, as the ball must surely have gone out before it bent back into play. "Ye cannae change the laws of geometry!" as Scotty might have said. 

West Ham then drop their concentration levels. Fernandes is creating lots of chances and a couple of minutes later Greenwood turns Van Basten-like to brilliantly convert an average cross from Telles. Rashford springs West Ham's offside strike to hit the post. His speed is causing Coufal and the defence big problems and the scourge of Boris Johnson then races on to Fernandes through ball to convert the third. If only he'd not had so many free school lunches he might not be so fast...

At least the Irons give it a go at the end. Benrahma comes on as sub and chips just over the bar while a late Cresswell free kick is well-saved by Henderson. Our 2000 fans get used to saying once again that it's not the despair they can't take. We used up our luck against Villa and it's no disgrace to lose to a side with some world-class finishers. But even so, if West Ham had taken their chances in the first half and VAR had done its job we'd have got something from this.

PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 6; Coufal 6 (Johnson n/a), Balbuena 6, Ogbonna 6, Cresswell 6, Masuaku 6; Rice 7, Soucek 7, Fornals 6 (Benrahma 6); Bowen 8 (Lanzini 5), Haller 5.