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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Alex Young

West Ham 1-0 Manchester United: David de Gea howler leaves top-four race wide open

West Ham earned a deserved win over Manchester United, despite David de Gea howler gifting the only goal, in a result which leaves the top-four race wide open.

Said Benrahma’s hurried effort from the edge of the area in the first half appeared a routine save, but the goalkeeper somehow saw the ball slip out of his grasp and inside the near post.

United are fourth on 63 points after 34 games, one ahead of Liverpool and with a game in hand over the Merseysiders, while West Ham are 15th on 37 points, seven ahead of third-from-bottom Nottingham Forest.

The visitors enjoyed the better chances in the opening half but they went behind when De Gea somehow failed to keep out a tame bouncing shot from Said Benrahma that nestled in the bottom corner, despite the Spaniard getting a strong hand to it.

United were lucky not to concede a penalty when Victor Lindelof moved his arm into the path of a ball across the box from Benrahma, but the VAR decided not to award a penalty as the first half came to a close.

De Gea redeemed himself somewhat early in the second half with a superb reaction save to deny Tomas Soucek, but he looked shaky again as Soucek scored with a header in the 73rd minute, only to see the goal chalked off for offside.

Marcus Rashford and substitute Anthony Martial both forced saves from Lukasz Fabianski late in the second half but despite 10 minutes of stoppage time United could not fashion a goal and they slumped to their second league defeat in a row.

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