Fans thrilled with Marcus Rashford’s performance against West Ham

Kilbane added: ‘Everything that United were lacking throughout the game, he gave it to them.

The Hammers started the game brightly but quickly suffered a setback after forward Sofiane Feghouli was controversially sent off by referee Mike Dean for a unsafe tackle on Manchester United defender Phil Jones.

Manchester United secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over West Ham at the London Stadium.

United are quietly stalking their way back behind the big boys again in the Premier League, while Mourinho is starting to show signs that he is getting a handle on how to use his squad.

However, substitutes Mata and Rashford came together in the 63rd minute when the young Englishman fed the Spaniards who finished with aplomb, prior to another goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Manuel Lanzini brought two strong saves from De Gea before the break, while Michail Antonio was crucially denied by the Spanish goalkeeper when through one-on-one on the hour mark.

Steven Gerrard believes that Paul Pogba has now begun to find his feet at Manchester United and has been very impressed by what he has seen from the midfielder in recent weeks.

The sending off ultimately changed how the game would play out – with West Ham sitting deeper and making it hard for United to create anything through the centre of the park.

FW Marcus Rashford, 9 -Was devastating nearly from the moment of his introduction, and his dribble and pass to assist Mata illuminated this game. In their last four away games they are unbeaten and if they can win tonight it would be the first time since February of 2015. The decisions to play Mata at half time and [Marcus] Rashford later? “I think if you talk about decisions, we are the champions of bad decisions”, said the Portuguese coach.

Mourinho’s charges remain sixth in the Premier League table, but are now one point behind fourth place Arsenal.

Here are FIVE pictures from the 2-0 win that summed up the action…

A packed New Year’s English Premier League schedule has forced most clubs to play two games in three days. West Ham don’t have near the depth their opponents do thanks to injuries, and thanks to the chaos of the holiday period, what depth the Hammers have has been worn down to a nub.

“They just need to keep doing what they’re doing and if Chelsea come back to them then that’s great”.