Man U’s Rashford and De Gea shine, Nelson gets 2 in Arsenal’s 5-0 win
Sports Desk, Oct 30 (EFE).- A spectacular header by Marcus Rashford was the lone goal in Manchester United’s home win over West Ham at Old Trafford Stadium on Sunday.
It was Rashford’s 100th goal for Man U, but even so netminder David de Gea was the star of the show as the Manchester squad advanced to the No. 5 spot on the Premier League table after a grueling match by a determined but no-joy West Ham.
After Rashford’s minute 36 goal, De Gea did fabulous work in the net, fending off three brilliant shots after the break that otherwise surely would have ruined the day for the home team and denied them the three ranking points for the win.
The hosts, coached by Erik Ten Hag, however, appear to have failed to capitalize on clear chances during the outing, with both Rashford – prior to his tally – and Cristiano Ronaldo, misfiring three times, coming up wanting along the way,
Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma and Declan Rice all made it a nail-biter, sending shots on goal toward the Man U net, but the Spaniard made great saves in all three cases, the latter one coming very late in play and probably the best chance the visitors had to snatch a tie from the jaws of defeat.
West Ham goaltender Lukasz Fabiankski also did great work in the net, deflecting a powerful long-distance blast by Ronaldo and another Rashford header try before he later managed to score on a similar effort.
The tally came when Christian Eriksen sent a crossing shot into the box and Rashford was on the scene, making a great leap and heading the ball past the reaching Fabianski.
With the loss, West Ham finds itself in the 13th spot on the Premier League table with 14 points.
Meanwhile, Arsenal crushed Nottingham Forest 5-0 at Emirates Stadium in London, stopping play after Gabriel Martinelli’s initial tally to pay tribute to teammate Pablo Mari, on loan to Italy’s Monza, who was one of five people stabbed in a grocery store knife attack near Milan.
Mari will be out for two months after being stabbed in the back, but it appears that he is out of mortal danger after surgery, although one store employee was killed.
The Spaniard’s teammates displayed the jersey he wore during his two seasons with the Gunners after Martinelli scored five minutes into the match Ryan Nelson, who came off the bench for the injured Bukayo Saka, basically put the game away by scoring bang-bang tallies in the 49th and 52nd minutes and Thomas Partey sent a fabulous shot into the twine in the 57th minute for the 4-0.
Mikel Arteta’s boys didn’t stop there, however, with Martin Odegaard establishing the final result in minute 78, and the win enables Arsenal to keep the pressure on in its fight for the Premier League title, now once again sitting at the top of the rankings with 31 points, two points ahead of Manchester City, who defeated Leicester City 1-0 on the weekend, and five points in front of Tottenham Hotspur.
Meanwhile, Forest is down in the relegation zone with just 9 points, three below the salvation threshold.
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