Manchester United v West Ham United: Premier League – live!

16 min Lovely move from Manchester United. Fred sprays a fine pass out to Lukaku on the right. He plays an angled pass back infield for Lingard, whose low ball flashes across the face of goal.

14 min West Ham have been the better side so far and look lively on the break.

10 min: Felipe Anderson has a goal wrongly disallowed for offside! Masuaku’s cross from the left was headed down by Hernandez, and when the ball bounced up Anderson finished acrobatically from six yards. He looked offside and was flagged offside – but replays show the right-back Dalot was playing him on.

9 min West Ham are playing with Snodgrass in the centre – partly to defend against Pogba – and Lanzini on the right.

7 min It’s been an open start to the game, although neither side has created anything worth shouting about in an internet liveblog.

4 min Dalot’s cross deflects behind for the first corner. Mata’s inswinger is half cleared to Fred, whose crisp shot from 20 yards is blocked.

3 min A slow start to the game. Paul Pogba is, as expected, playing a bit deeper for United alongside Fred.

1 min Peep peep! West Ham, in their light grey third strip, get the match under way. United are in red.

The players emerge from the tunnel on a chilly Manchester evening. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, looking as happy as ever, high-fives Fred the Red.

Manuel Pellegrini explains Arnautovic’s absence “Marko was sick during the week so he was not 100 per cent to play this game.”

The 3pm kick-offs are coming to an end, and it’s been another bad day for Neil Warnock’s blood pressure

This is the best thing you’ll read on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has rested three important players – Lindelof, Rashford and McTominay – ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Barcelona. Marko Arnautovic doesn’t even make the bench for West Ham.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1) De Gea; Dalot, Smalling, Jones, Rojo; Fred, Pogba; Lingard, Mata, Martial; Lukaku.
Substitutes: Romero, Lindelof, Rashford, Pereira, McTominay, Greenwood, Darmian.

West Ham United (4-2-3-1) Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Noble, Rice; Snodgrass, Lanzini, Anderson; Hernandez.
Substitutes: Adrian, Obiang, Diop, Fredericks, Antonio, Holland, Diangana.

Referee Graham Scott.

Good afternoon. Let’s proceed to Sunday 18 February 1990. That was the day Manchester United won 3-2 at Newcastle in a brilliant FA Cup fifth-round match. After the game, they were drawn to play away to Sheffield United in the quarter-finals, and the BBC’s Gerald Sinstadt asked two the goalscorers, Brian McClair and Danny Wallace what they made of the draw.

“It’s another away tie,” said Wallace, “so we’re very happy with that.” It was a striking comment, given the established concept of home advantage in association football. But at that stage, Alex Ferguson’s United hadn’t won at Old Trafford in over three months, so Wallace’s comment was understandable.

Things are nowhere near as bad this season – ‘Three weeks of excuses and it’s still crap, ta-ra Ole’ hasn’t been seen on any banners – but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side also look more comfortable away from Old Trafford. All of their best results and performances under Solskjaer have come in London or Paris – no surprise, given their main attacking strengths are pace and movement rather than wit and craft.

The upshot is that what would normally be a favourable run-in, with four home games out of six remaining, is harder to appraise. Even this game at home to West Ham doesn’t look like a sure thing. But United really need a win this evening – to maintain their challenge for a top-four place, to restore some order after a run of four defeats in five games, and to remind themselves that playing at home can be an advantage.

Kick off is at 5.30pm.