Premiership: O'Shea makes full debut for Man Utd

Laurent Blanc’s absence with a broken nose forced Alex Ferguson to hand John O’Shea his full Premiership debut and field his 12th centre-half pairing of the season.

O’Shea lined up alongside Gary Neville, who shrugged off a groin injury to play, at the heart of the Manchester United defence.

Once again there was no David Beckham and the England captain was named among the substitutes, while Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud van Nistelrooy were given the afternoon off completely.

Luke Chadwick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were United’s other two alterations, while West Ham were unchanged.

West Ham, who had lost their last 11 league games at Old Trafford, was the first of six relatively easy matches for United and provided them with the chance to get their faltering title challenge back on track.