With things heating up at both ends of the table, West Ham travelled to face Manchester United in game week 37 of the English Premier League. The Hammers were more or less guaranteed to stay in the Premier League but a point would settle the equation mathematically. Manchester United, on the other hand, would jump to third if they avoided defeat, but would like to take all three points ahead of their crucial clash with Leicester on the final day.
With Chelsea playing Liverpool a few hours later, the race for the Champions League spots would go down to the last day and United looked to set themselves nicely to seal qualification. In this tactical analysis, we will look at the tactics of both sides and our analysis will look at how these tactics changed through the game.
Lineups
Manchester United made two changes to the squad that started their last Premier League game against Crystal Palace, with Brandon Williams and Nemanja Matić coming in for Aaron Wan-Bisakka and Scott McTominay. Timothy Fosu-Mensah moved to play at right-back while Williams started in his usual left-back position. The Red Devils came into this fixture on the back of a loss in the FA Cup semi-final and were hoping to quickly put that behind them. They were, however, unbeaten in the Premier League since the end of January.
West Ham named an unchanged side and they were coming in on the back of a crucial 3-1 victory over fellow relegation battlers Watford. Michail Antonio had been on impeccable form since the restart and was the second-highest goal scorer since the lockdown. Tomáš Souček had been a good influence on the West Ham side since coming in on loan and the Hammers looked to be closing in on a permanent deal for the midfielder. Captain Mark Noble played behind Antonio as West Ham set up in a 4-4-1-1 formation.
