David Moyes believes his West Ham side are lacking a “final ingredient” after once again coming up just short in a meeting with one of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’.
The Hammers were sunk by Marcus Rashford’s first-half header at Old Trafford on Sunday as Manchester United emerged with a 1-0 victory despite a late push for a leveller from Moyes’ side.
It follows a similarly narrow defeat against Liverpool at Anfield earlier this month, while the Irons were also beaten 2-1 at Chelsea this season after having a late equaliser controversially chalked off by VAR.
“I thought the players put in a good performance but we’re lacking just the final ingredient which could make the difference at the moment,” Moyes said.
“We said last year that we were trying to challenge [the Big Six], we finished seventh, finished a point behind United. All the games so far, we played Chelsea away, played Man United away, Liverpool away and we’ve not got the results but I think you’d be wrong if you said we’ve not given them right good games and run them close.
“We have tried to challenge them, we’ve just got on the wrong side of it. Hopefully in the second fixtures, we’ve got to play each other again, we can turn that around.”
The hosts were the better side for much of the game but West Ham grew in belief as the game wore on and in the end Erik ten Hag’s men needed two magnificent saves from David de Gea to deny first Kurt Zouma and then Declan Rice late on.
“David de Gea’s two saves were fantastic, they really were, but he’s been a great goalkeeper for Manchester United,” Moyes added.
“You don’t be Manchester United’s No1 for that length of time if you’re not a fantastic goalkeeper. He made two brilliant saves today for them and probably saved them from that point of view but it’s disappointing for us that we didn’t score because we put them under enough pressure.
“Even Jarrod [Bowen]’s at the end - he gets a good connection and I think it hits Harry Maguire’s calf and stops it going in. It’s those little bits I’m talking about - we’re just missing that little bit to get the ball in the net.
“It’s been the same in quite a few of the away games. We played very well at Anfield, missed a penalty that night, missed a couple of other opportunities and today was a bit the same.”
