Man Utd 0-1 West Ham: Moyes secures his first win over his former club| All Football

Manchester United crashed out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night as West Ham got revenge for their league loss on Sunday by claiming victory at Old Trafford.

2021/2022 League Cup

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Match Report

One down, three to go. If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer really does need to deliver a trophy this season to preserve his future as Manchester United manager, then he can already rule out the Carabao Cup.

There are many at United who would dispute that theory. They would argue that a season like last one – runners-up in the league and place in a European final – would beat, say, winning this competition and falling flat in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

Still, Solskjaer would have wanted to clear the first hurdle, but he saw United beaten in front of 72,468 – the biggest League Cup crowd at Old Trafford for five years.

For West Ham, this represented revenge of sorts after their league defeat to United on Sunday when Jesse Lingard scored a late goal and Mark Noble was summoned off the bench to take a penalty that was saved.

David Moyes’s side took an early lead through Manuel Lanzini and did enough to keep hold of their lead and a secure a place in the fourth round.

Jared Bowen was the only player from the 22 who lined up at the London Stadium on Sunday to start here.

Dean Henderson returned in goal for United after a long recovery from Covid, keeping Tom Heaton on the bench alongside Phil Jones who was named in the match-day squad for the first time since February 2020.

‘It’s a risk making so many changes but if you’re going to be successful at the end, you need the whole squad and minutes to be shared out,’ admitted Solskjaer before kick-off.

It was a gamble that backfired on United within nine minutes after a lively start from West Ham that saw early chances fall to Bowen and Alex Kral.

Ryan Fredericks appeared to be boxed in on the right flank but managed to wriggle between Alex Telles and Jadon Sancho on his way to the bye-line. Fredericks managed to pull the ball back, even though it led to an injury that saw him withdrawn shortly afterwards, and Manuel Lanzini swept a shot beyond Henderson.

United absorbed the early blow and grew into the game, although they lacked a cutting edge up front.

They had a penalty appeal turned down by referee Jon Moss when Jesse Lingard and Mark Noble – the two main protagonists in Sunday’s late drama – tangled in the box. Indeed, Noble looked as though he was on a mission to make up for his missed penalty at the London Stadium on his first start since April.

Juan Mata rattled the bar from a difficult angle, Anthony Martial’s wayward finish from close-range betrayed his lack of confidence at the moment, and Alphonse Areola turned away a stinging 25-yard effort from Lingard before the end of an entertaining first half.

It was a similar story after the break as Mata clipped in a pass to Sancho who hooked over before substitute Mason Greenwood was sent through by Donny van de Been but couldn’t beat Areola.

The tenacious Noble was booked for hauling down Sancho and Nemanja Matic was very lucky to escape any punishment at all when he kneed Vladimir Coufal in the groin.

Solskjaer sent on Bruno Fernandes for the latter stages but it was West Ham who went closest to another goal when Andriy Yarmolenko hit the post and Noble failed one-on-one with Henderson.