A graceful Sir Alex Ferguson admitted West Ham deserved to beat his Manchester United team at Upton Park today.
The Hammers fell behind to an early Cristiano Ronaldo goal and the winger then missed a penalty before West Ham won the game late on through goals from Anton Ferdinand and Matthew Upson.
“We were beaten by a better team I think. I don’t think we measured up to our normal performance,” said Ferguson.
“When that happens, particularly when the team is motivated against you, you are going to get a hard day, and we had a hard day.
“I think we struggled today. They were very competitive and aggressive West Ham and they were always about us, tackling us everywhere.
“Getting the lead, and missing the penalty – that would have killed the game, but I couldn’t see it happening. If you are losing goals from set-pieces, you know you’re not at your best.”
Ferguson’s men are now two points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, after the Gunners won 4-1 at Everton in the day’s late kickoff.
The United manager now hopes his players can bounce back with a win against Birmingham at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day.
He said: “They are human beings and you can’t expect them to be perfect all the time. We had a perfect performance in our last game at Sunderland and this was a disappointment today.
“It’s a great team I’ve got, but we just have to galvanise ourselves. A great reply if you always give a bad performance is to have a good one next time.”
Do you think we should get rid of Saha? I know he has been injured and just scored two goals against Sunderland, but that was only because of Rooney’s beautiful form in that game and a penalty. To me it just seems that the guy has nothing left when you leave him up front. against the Hammers was a perfect time for him to shine but he hid under the bleachers to me. Maybe I am overreacting after the bitter defeat but it just seems that we need another striker when Rooney gets his usual knock. Tevez and Saha have no partnership. I hope this angolian kid is really good. Maybe he will take Louis’s place and hustle and not complain after every lost ball.
A lot of the fault for this loss has to be born by Kuszczak. He should have been out to punch away both of those set piece goals. Earlier in the game, Rio was telling him to stay on his line and let the defense do its job, but the keeper has to play the game on instinct, and his instincts should have had him off his line and clearing the danger himself.
Being up 2-nil would certainly have helped to kill the spirit of West Ham, but to be honest, while it was most definitely a hand ball, it was NOT in the box. So the miss was justice for a bad call – no matter how much I wish he would have hit it.
To be honest I think he is too scared to make any kind of decision. The kid always looks like a nervous wreck. It goes all the way back to the champions league game against porto. He is by far the 3rd best keeper on our team and I can”t see him wearing a manutd jersey next year. He is rubbish. Especially on the first goal allowed verse the Hammers. He was wasy out of position in between punching it out and guarding the header. I just can’t believe we have lost to these guys 3 times in a row now. I know that I am knee jerking but we have got to get Scholsey healthy and sack Fletcher and Saha. While we are at it lets get another right back in here and give Brown his walking papers. Haha maybe a little too much but I just can’t believe we lost when we knew we had the top of the table. Glory Glory
man united best club in the world! again win 99 p man united
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