Man United Clinches Second-Place Finish in Premier League With West Ham Draw
Manchester United were held to a disappointing draw at the London Stadium on Thursday night, as they failed to break down a resolute West Ham United defense, with goalkeeper Adrian proving to be the hero.
Despite the dull encounter, United confirmed that they will finish in second place this season, while David De Gea is now sure to win the Premier League's Golden Glove award for most clean sheets, as he is currently on 18.
After securing their Premier League status with a win against Leicester City last Saturday, West Ham earned themselves a point against a United side who made eight changes to their starting lineup after falling to a poor defeat to Brighton last Friday, including a rare start for Luke Shaw.
The match began quietly, with chances initially remaining at a premium.
A defensive error nearly brought about the first goal of the match for West Ham as Chris Smalling failed to deal with a dangerous looking cross from Aaron Creswell. However, West Ham's talisman, Marko Arnautovic, was unable to react quickly enough and he subsequently guided his effort well over the bar.
It took until the 20th minute for Manchester United to kick into gear with Scott McTominay firing wide from just outside the 18 yard box.
United had lacked creativity in front of goal in their previous Premier League match against Brighton but they looked to rectify this as Lingard followed up with a chance of his own just moments later, taking aim from a similar distance to call Adrian into a superb flying save to his left.
Mourinho's side then seemed to be full of confidence as they tested the Spaniard twice more in matter of seconds. First Alexis Sanchez fizzed in an effort which was palmed into Luke Shaw's path and Adrian then produced more heroics as he stuck out a boot to turn the left-back's fierce strike on to his near post.
West Ham, perhaps now wide awake after these close misses, looked to take the lead themselves with Aaron Cresswell dragging a long range effort wide of the far post.
David Moyes's men then had their best chance of the first half through after Arnautovic evaded Chris Smalling and entered the Manchester United box to tee up Joao Mario, but the Portuguese was only able to stab wide from close range.
After a quiet last 10 minutes, the final action of the half saw Adrian fly to West Ham's rescue on the fourth occasion, producing a carbon copy of his first save from Lingard with the very same player stinging his palms once again.
The sides went in to the halftime break level but the Red Devils were far and away the more dangerous attacking threat of the two sides.
The second half began as the first half had finished with United on the front foot, with another chance straight after the restart. On this occasion it was Angelo Ogbonna who saved his side from going behind as he cleared away a lofted Sanchez effort from the line after Adrian has got himself caught in no-mans land.
West Ham began to play with a little more freedom then they did in the first half and they were unfortunate not register an effort on goal after Arnautovic worked his magic once again, only for none of his teammates to be on his wavelength as United just about dealt with the Austrian's dangerous looking cut back.
Andy Carroll brought on for Arthur Masuaku in an attempt to take away all three points at the London Stadium.
Despite the fact that United had seemingly lost their mojo in the second half, they did look threatening when they managed to build an attack and Paul Pogba delivered a cross come shot that avoided everyone in the box and narrowly missed the far post to boot.
The next ten minutes drifted by with a mistimed volley from Arnautovic, temporarily breaking up the play, which had all of a sudden become pedestrian between the two teams.
Suddenly, the game exploded into life but for all the wrong reasons in the final few minutes. A brief scuffle broke out following a late challenge on Mark Noble by Paul Pogba and the West Ham captain was fortunate to stay on the pitch after he appeared to grab the French midfielder by the face.
This was to be the last action in what was a mostly tepid affair, with both teams seemingly settling for a point as the clock ticked down to 90 minutes.
