Mark Noble gamble backfires as Man United claim dramatic win

Manchester United's Jesse Lingard (centre) celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game with Cristiano Ronaldo. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA 

Mark Noble had an injury-time penalty saved after he was sent on by West Ham manager David Moyes just to take the spot-kick.

Captain Declan Rice had been poised to take the penalty and the gamble massively back-fired as David de Gea saved well to his left five minutes into time added on.

It meant Jesse Lingard's 89th minute spectacular strike settled the match after he too had come off the bench at the ground where he reignited his career on loan last season.

Cristiano Ronaldo's fourth goal in three games had given United the platform to extend their unbeaten Premier League run to 29 games after Said Benrahma had given West Ham a deserved lead.

It was a good game with a remarkable finish.

In no way intimidated by their star quality opponents, West Ham's tenacity enabled them to go in front after half an hour.

There was nothing De Gea could do to stop Benrahma's shot from finding the back of the net as his shot took a massive deflection off Raphael Varane, who was guilty of turning sideways to the ball.

The lead lasted fewer than five minutes as United injected some urgency into their play and raised the tempo of the match.

And Ronaldo's almost inevitable equaliser came when the Portuguese timed a run to inch-perfect precision to meet a Fernandes pass and turned the ball in after his initial volley was returned straight back to him by a flapping Lukasz Fabianski.

The Poland international also needed two attempts to smother another Ronaldo effort soon after as West Ham spent the remainder of the first half being passed out of the game by a United side now on top of their game.

Solskjaer's men were unconvincing to start, but finished the opening 45 minutes with seven shots on target from their 10 attempts on goal.

Their 11th, just a minute into the second half was superbly saved by Fabianski after he raced off his line to deny Ronaldo a second goal after some poor defending led to a great chance.

West Ham remained defiant, though, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made a double attacking substitution in the 68th minute – sending on Jadon Sancho and Lingard – not long after they had escaped a penalty appeal after Aaron Wan-Bissaka appeared to sweep away the legs of Tomas Soucek.

Referee Martin Atkinson saw Soucek as the culprit and West Ham gained some energy from the decision despite being denied a spot kick.

At least he balanced it out by denying Ronaldo two good shouts for penalties following clumsy challenges. It does not take much for CR7 to lose his footing, but we have all seen them given.

Then Lingard put the smile back on Ronaldo's face with his powerful right foot shot as he refused to celebrate against the team that he starred at on loan last season.

And just as the clock was ticking down, Luke Shaw instinctively stuck out an arm to block a cross and Atkinson overturned his own decision to deny a penalty after checking the action for a second time on the pitch-side monitor.

WEST HAM: Fabianski 7, Coufal 6, Ogbonna 6, Zouma 6, Cresswell 6, Soucek 6, Rice 7, Vlasic 6 (Yarmolenko 68), Benrahma 7 (Lanzini 88), Fornals 6, Bowen 6 (Noble 90). Subs: Subs: Areola, Dawson, Diop, Fredericks, Masuaku, Kral.

MAN UTD: De Gea 6, Wan-Bissaka 6, Varane 6, Maguire 6, Shaw 7, Fred 6 (Matic 88), McTominay 6, Pogba 6 (Lingard 73), Greenwood 6 (Sancho 73), Fernandes 7, Ronaldo 8. Subs: Subs: Heaton, Bailly, Mata, Martial, Dalot, van de Beek.

Ref: Martin Atkinson 5.