Five talking points: West Ham 1-0 Manchester United (Premier League)

Manchester United failed to end this poor away run as West Ham ran out 1-0 winners courtesy of a big David de Gea error.

Manchester United have grabbed just one point of a possible last nine in their last three Premier League away fixtures, with Erik ten Hag‘s men drawing away against Tottenham and losing against Brighton.

David de Gea was the man to blame for West Ham’s goal, losing his footing and failing to palm away a weak shot to give West Ham the goal that secured them all three points.

Here are five talking points from the fixture.

#1 – David de Gea…

West Ham’s opening goal was a type of blunder fans have not seen from David de Gea in a long, long time.

Much has been made this season of his deficits in goal, mostly in relation to his distribution, with the counterpoint always being that his shot-stopping abilities make up for it.

However, as Said Benrahma took a rather tame shot from 20 yards, what should have been a simple save for the keeper down to his right-hand side, he completely misread the ball and it shot under him and into the next, despite him getting a hand to it.

De Gea was also served a mighty slice of luck in the second half, with an initial second goal for West Ham ruled out for a very soft foul on the Spaniard, with VAR agreeing.

With his mistakes in Spain against Sevilla putting him under intense pressure, this will only add to the scrutiny he will be under as the season comes to a close.

#2 – Lindelof gets lucky

Right at the end of the first half, Victor Lindelof was alleged to have handled the ball in the United area, although VAR recommended no action.

Upon replay, it’s obvious that as the ball moves towards him, he moves his arm into a different position, making it easy to claim that the handball was deliberate, and therefore a penalty should be been given.

Had West Ham been granted a penalty right at the end of the first half, that could have completely killed the game off by the time the half-time whistle went.

#3 – VAR probably stopped it from being worse

As mentioned above, VAR intervened to deny West Ham a goal and a penalty… two decisions which, on replay, probably should have gone the other way.

If West Ham had been granted both decisions, it could have been 3-0 to the home side before an hour had gone – a result which, to be perfectly honest, would have been a better reflection of the game.

Ultimately, it did not matter as West Ham grabbed the three points, but it could have been so much worse.

#4 – It’s way too obvious that the players need a break

The worst part about how United currently play is that they seem completely out of ideas.

Fatigue seems to have truly set in, both physically and mentally… it seems back against the wall, hit and hope, and lack of structure at the moment.

With just five fixtures left this season, United look like they’ve completely hit a wall in terms of their communication, ideas, and energy – and there’s not much Ten Hag can do about it.

With five days until their next fixture, it may do the players well to have a few days off ahead of the fixture against Wolves on Saturday.

#5 – The top four race is becoming unnecessarily difficult

As it stands, are sat one point ahead of Liverpool in fifth place, with one game in hand.

The number of points dropped in recent game weeks have really given United a much harder job than was needed to be.

It seemed in March that United had that top-four spot nailed down, and were likely to finish third… but now it’s not that simple. If the club and players aren’t careful, they may be playing Europa League football once again next season.