I'm with daughter Nell for this one and there's an expectant atmosphere in the queue at Block H. Inside the London Stadium Fraser is sporting a cut nose after slipping on his friend's polished floor (though we suspect the truth is a ruck at Millwall), Matt is recounting his rainy day in Ipswich with the Under-21s, Michael is asking how many acts there are in this performance and Nigel is wondering whether to eat his lucky banana at half-time.
Steve the Cornish Postie has made it up to the metropolis and is with Alison's sister and top Essex sociologist Roz, while Scott is away at an important Colchester Gladiators match. The game begins with a minute's applause for the late Jimmy Greaves, who once helped start Gavin's grandad's car in Hornchurch..
Ronaldo's first touch is to play the ball into touch, accompanied by ironic cheers. Kurt Zouma rapidly endears himself to the Irons' faithful by clattering into Pogba. Bowen is replacing the suspended Antonio and has a couple of chances in the first half hour. After being found by Benrahma his shot is blocked by Wan-Bissaka and then he has a toe-poke saved by De Gea's feet. At the other end Fabianski does fabulously to tip Bruno Fernandes' strike on to the post.
ONE-NIL TO THE COCKNEY BOYS
West Ham take the lead after half an hour thanks to a massively deflected shot from Benrahma. But if you don't shoot you don't score and that's Said's third of the season. Could we be about to pull off an upset against Ronaldo's boys? Perhaps not. Five minutes later Ronaldo is played inside by Cresswell's foot and gets behind the defender to shoot against Fabianski and then tap home the rebound.The galactico poseur is getting into the game, producing a few flash stepovers and forcing Fabianski into a smart low save. Vlasic fires a decent first time effort wide and it's 1-1 at half-time.
The second half sees Fabianski have to produce a fine save at Ronaldo's feet after Fornals' sloppy ball. Fornals does better when he flicks Bowen's cross just wide a few minutes later.
Soucek has a definite penalty refused after he's clattered by Wan-Bisakka in the box and then Ronaldo has another penalty claim after being caught by Coufal. Ominously United are exerting lots of late pressure, though Rice does make one surging run.
JESSE SCREAMER
The £73m Jadon Sancho come on, along with Jesse Lingard, who is greeted by a rousing chorus from the home fans of "He wants to come home". It's inevitable what happens in the 89th minute, as Jesse cuts inside Zouma to fire a great shot into the top corner. He doesn't celebrate which is a nice touch though the legions from Surrey in the away end go mental.
West Ham keep going though and as we reach the last of three added minutes Yarmolenko's cross is touched by the outstretched arm of Luke Shaw. VAR agrees it's a penalty. Rice steps up but then Moyes brings on Mark Noble to take it. I'm not that confident in Rice as a penalty taker as he's only ever scored one and missed one, while Noble has a great record from the spot. It makes sense to bring on the skipper on paper, though perhaps it has piled too much pressure on him. Noble's first kick of the game sees De Gea make a good save, though the penalty is a little high. A point would have felt like a victory, but it's not to be. Moyes made a brave decision which didn't come off, though it's hard to be too critical. Had Rice missed we'd have been asking why Noble wasn't brought on.
So it's off to the Refreshment Rooms where Fraser tells us about seeing a foggy old Lindisfarne line-up at Nell's last week and Nigel recounts the time he was insulted by Brian May. Overall it's been a good game and while we have no strikers, United can have a £73m sub and bring on Lingard. They'll be close to the title and we've given them a tough match. Now it's on to United again in the League Cup and a winnable game at Leeds. Just hope we don't get any penalties.
PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 8; Coufal 6, Zouma 7, Ogbonna 6, Cresswell 6; Rice 7, Soucek 6, Benrahma 7 (Lanzini n/a), Fornals 6, Vlasic 5 (Yarmolenko 6); Bowen 6 (Noble n/a but 10 for bottle).
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