Late penalty sees wasteful Man Utd suffer fourth Premier League defeat in nine games: Five things we learned from West Ham 2-1 Man Utd | OneFootball

Jarrod Bowen scored a late penalty to snatch all three points against a wasteful Manchester United.

After a wasteful first half which saw Diogo Dalot register as a contender for miss of the season, substitute Crysensio Summerville opened the scoring before Casemiro’s equaliser.

But a controversial late refereeing decision saw West Ham awarded a penalty, which Bowen duly converted to make it 2-1. Here’s five big talking points from the game…

More VAR drama

The noise around refereeing decisions and VAR has increased of late and it will even more after David Coote’s game-deciding decision. After a long VAR check which saw the referee go to the monitor, he eventually decided that Mathjis de Ligt had fouled Danny Ings. It looked a debatable decision to say the least and certainly was not an obvious howler, and the United players were left furious by the call.

Dalot howler the worst of Man Utd’s missed chances

There is not much more Erik ten Hag can do when his team are missing as many chances as they did in the first half. Diogo Dalot somehow missed an open goal after rounding Lukasz Fabianski from Bruno Fernandes’ ball over the top, Alejandro Garnacho spurned two big opportunities to open the scoring, Rasmus Hojlund was denied from close range and Lukasz Fabianski also produced an outstanding stop to keep out Casemiro’s header. The away side’s game plan of looking for the ball over the top into the space behind West Ham’s high line for their pacey forwards to run into worked well in the first half and ten Hag is by far from the main culprit to blame for the defeat.

Summerville lifts West Ham crowd after woeful first half

West Ham were really poor in the first half, being exposed time and time again in behind because of their questionable high line, just as they were against Chelsea, giving the ball away in poor positions and struggling to get anything going in attack either. There were a handful of boos at the half-time whistle and their opponents should really have been out of sight if not for poor finishing but boss Julen Lopetegui responded at the break by making three changes, including bring summer signing Crysensio Summerville onto the pitch.

The former Leeds brought a much needed spark into the attack, beating players and drawing fouls, before scoring the opener for his side when he was alive in the box to anticipate Danny Ings’ mis-hit shot and tap the ball in at the back post. Summerville surely has to be in West Ham’s starting 11 for the next game based on his impact?

Bruno Fernandes shines in free role

The Man Utd skipper will be left wondering how he did not end up with at least one assist against West Ham. He was given the freedom to roam the pitch and drop deep, and picked out some fantastic passes for his team-mates, including a lovely ball over the top for Dalot’s shocking miss and squared it for Garnacho early on, who hit the bar when he really should have done better. Fernandes was everywhere on the pitch and a real creative threat for his side, and West Ham did not know how to deal with him in the first half. There will no doubt be frustration on his part that his team-mates were so wasteful.

Casemiro’s comeback?

Casemiro was widely criticised in Man Utd’s earlier season defeat to Liverpool, and subsequently lost his place in the team having also endured a difficult last campaign too. But he was in the starting 11 for the game against West Ham and did a really good job in midfield, not just fulfilling his defensive duties but helping to pick out more advanced team-mates in the final third, and scored the equaliser for his side by showing his poacher-like instincts to head home from close range. Many had already written Casemiro off but this performance showed that he is not done just yet despite the result.