Soccer Football - Premier League - West Ham United v Manchester United - London Stadium, London, Britain - December 23, 2023 West Ham United's Jarrod Bowen celebrates scoring their first goal Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley
LONDON (Reuters) -Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus' second-half goals gave West Ham a 2-0 win over Manchester United in the Premier League's early game on Saturday, as the Hammers briefly moved into the top six.
Bowen bundled home from close range in the 72nd minute after a lovely one-two with Lucas Paqueta, who played in Kudus six minutes later to settle the game with a sharp finish.
West Ham, recovering from a bruising 5-1 defeat to Liverpool in the League Cup in midweek, move up to sixth on 30 points. United, who have not scored in their last four games in all competitions, drop to eighth on 28 points.
"We didn't start particularly well but we kept ourselves in the game," Hammers boss David Moyes said.
Moyes said his side's return of 30 points at this stage in the season was "a brilliant number of points for us".
He added: "We are not going to be a club who's going to be rattling right at the top – we'll try to – but until we grow, keep growing, keep improving, try to improve a bit every year, that's all we can do.
"I think we're making pretty good strides and I think today was another good victory."
The first half was low on quality and its best chance fell to Alejandro Garnacho in the 35th minute, but the winger lost his balance and shot straight at Alphonse Areola.
West Ham nearly scored immediately afterwards, with a dangerous cross from Bowen forcing Jonny Evans into a smart block as the first half ended with more urgency.
Bowen nearly opened the scoring shortly after the break with a good header from a James Ward-Prowse corner, but his attempt was well saved by Onana.
The winger finally broke the deadlock, however, with his 11th league goal of the season, taking Paqueta's dinked ball in his stride before Onana's save rebounded off the forward and into the net.
Paqueta then capitalised on Kobbie Mainoo's mistake in midfield to set up Kudus, who fired home past Onana to secure all three points for the hosts.
The defeat, United's eighth in the league and 13th in all competitions, will pile further pressure on manager Erik ten Hag, who was taunted by the jubilant West Ham fans before the final whistle.
Ten Hag said he thought his side was "controlling the game" before they conceded. "We didn't give West Ham United anything and we created three good chances and we didn't take them," Ten Hag told reporters.
He called on his players to "take responsibility", but backed them to turn United's fortunes around and start scoring again.
"We have players who can do it, they proved it in the past, they can do it but we also have to acknowledge the facts that we didn't do (it) as a team and so we have to take responsibility," Ten Hag said.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
