It was a battle between two injury ravaged United’s at Upton Park as both sides’ concerns grew with more names to add to the wounded list, but in terms of the football, there was only one team in it – four goals, each beautifully constructed in their own way, scored by Manchester United.

There were the expected changes after the Carling Cup win over Spurs but Darron Gibson clearly did enough to keep his place in the team – however, the opening exchanges hinted that West Ham would give United a run for their money. Giggs misplaced a pass that Hines collected – his cross shot across the face of goal was almost converted by Collison who was snuffed out by the backtracking Giggs – this early chance was really the closest the Hammers came to notching a goal in the first half.