West Ham v Manchester United, Getty Images February 11, 2026, 12:12 AM

Football has long reached a galactic level in the context of social networks, and therefore from the match of the twenty-sixth round of the English Premier League between London West Ham and Manchester United, fans expected not so much a spectacle directly on the football field, but the final point in one very old pair of one fan. Frank Aylett supports the “Red Devils”, who, however, are not in too much of a hurry to respond to positive results, and on October 5, 2024, the fan took a clipper and shaved off his own hair.

But the next time he promised to do it when his favorite team can win five matches in a row in the championship. 493 days have passed since then. And so, Manchester City (2:0), Arsenal (3:2), Fulham (3:2), Tottenham (2:0), and Manchester United were one step away from fulfilling the cherished condition. It would seem that could go wrong in the game against the Hammers, who have been in the relegation zone for a long time, although they have recently started to raise their heads under the guns of Nunu Espiritu Santo.

And in the end, on the field of the Olympic Stadium in London, the “hammer fighters” did put sticks in the wheels of their opponents. It was a difficult game for Michael Carrick’s side from the start, with the home side getting the first chances through efforts from Bowen and Summerville. After that, the game continued for a long time in midfield, and it was not until the end of the first half that Manchester United ventured into the left wing of the penalty area with Diallo’s shot past the near post.

This will not go far. Especially since West Ham managed to open the scoring at the beginning of the second half. In the 50th minute, Diouf sent the ball from his own half to the right wing, where Bowen and Soucek led the counterattack to a cross at the near post, which was finished by the Czech midfielder. And here it was already no joke – the guests had not created any foundation for leveling the state of affairs on the scoreboard.

At the same time, Carrick’s team simply tried to direct the ball to someone else’s penalty area as much as possible, which did not bring them special dividends, except for the moment with Casemiro’s goal from a pass to Maine from the right wing in the 63rd minute, which was disallowed due to offside. The next such episode had to wait until the compensated time, when Mbemo found Sheshko with a pass at the near post, and he poked the ball into the net with a touch. If Zirkze had done the same before, but in a far corner, in a similar situation, then it would be possible to go to the hairdresser.

West Ham: Hermansen — Van-Bissaka, Disassi, Mavropanos, Diouf (Magassa, 80) — Magassa, — Bowen (Walker-Peters, 90), Soucek (Bowen, 50), Potts (Scarles, 80), Summerville (Traore, 89) — M. Fernandes — Castellanos (Wilson, 69).