Manchester United take big silver lining from first Michael Carrick blip at West Ham

Michael Carrick just about keeps his unbeaten record going, but most significant might be how that comes from Benjamin Sesko really picking up speed. Certainly in terms of form, but there’s also a crucial poise to the Manchester United forward’s game.

Because this latest important finish, this time in the 96th minute to follow that in the 98th against Fulham, required supreme presence of mind and technique. Sesko deftly touched in a late cross, to divert the points and secure a 1-1 draw against West Ham United.

That is likely to have some consequence on the Champions League places, but the effect on the bottom might be greater.

West Ham might have got a valuable point but they will know this could have been so much more, not least for Tottenham Hotspur.

Just after 10 o’clock, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had their great London rivals within three points of the relegation, as the prospect rose of a club as huge as Spurs - and a Super League founder - actually going down.

For West Ham’s part, this point may still be valuable in that chase. Direction of travel is only going one way right now.

And, to Nuno’s credit, that same momentum also stunted Manchester United here. Carrick loses his perfect record, his side failing to win a fifth successive game.

They didn’t really do enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck here, and required a striker’s instinct.

That might have partly been down to the fact it was the first time he had a midweek game, but felt largely due to Nuno’s approach.

And there is a wider point there.

As rousing as so much of Carrick’s time has been so far, the curiosity is that it is these matches - the ones you really have to dig down for - that are going to be most determinative of how his time in charge actually goes.

While you only have to point to Ruben Amorim’s time to show it isn’t exactly “easy” to get up for the big games, they do kind of take care of themselves in how the gameplans are more obvious, and involve a basic defiance, with all of that then amplified by the atmosphere.

These sort of games have none of that, even allowing for the historic antipathy from West Ham towards United. It’s not like Nuno Espirito Santo really plays on that kind of emotion, after all.

No, he’d rather keep it tight and see what they can get on the counter.

It’s the sort of approach that really suppresses an opposition’s momentum, ensuring games like this can very quickly become long slogs. The mood shifts.

Different questions are asked, but the answers tell a bit more about the basic state of the team.

A team also has to go a bit deeper to find the same spark.

They need to build, and construct play.

And this is what has really separated the top coaches from the rest over the last 15 years. It is implementing ideologies that raise your level regardless of the game.

And while it’s obviously unfair to expect Carrick to do that in a matter of weeks, the key point is that is going to be the challenge. That is how you really make yourself Manchester United manager.

He clearly tried to change something at half-time.

And it was typically when United started to step up that West Ham found the space that Nuno had been patiently waiting for. Carrick’s side had started to find Bruno Fernandes more, and were finally trying to get options around him. From there, West Ham pounced. Soucek started the move by pushing the ball on towards Jarrod Bowen, and kept going. The forward then took a moment of pause before picking exactly the right ball across the box, Soucek then getting an almost imperceptible touch to divert it past Senne Lammens.

It only intensified that challenge for Carrick, and not just because he needed to score two, but because West Ham could sit even deeper and tighter. There was now even less space to work into.

That was emphasised when United finally had the ball in the back of the net. Casemiro had scored a header, but he’d had to stray offside in order to find those crucial extra centimetres. The Brazilian immediately gestured that he knew it was borderline.

That had come from a relatively speculative cross, which was typical of the performance. United were at their most ponderous for some time. Bryan Mbuemo, in trying to make something happen, just kept running into a wall of bodies. West Ham, to their credit, had succeeded in suppressing the game… but only to a certain extent.

The one problem with playing so deep is that you cede space in other areas, and invite more and more attacks.

It is ideal for a big number-nine… if you’ve got one. United have one who might yet be one of the most promising in the game.

Sesko perpetuated his promising form with maybe his best strike yet.

It was the finish United needed, and the moment Spurs were crying for.

On the evidence of what West Ham actually did, though, this relegation battle has a long way to go - and may reach a scale rarely seen. It could get hair-raising.