Manchester United revel in rare afternoon of calm against a wilting West Ham

We remain quite a long way from vintage Manchester United, but this overdue return to calmly efficient Manchester United offers plenty of encouragement.

The over-the-top United Are Back giddiness that greeted the early stages of the Wolves game – albeit a game that featured a first look this season at what might reasonably be called Erik Ten Hag’s first-choice team – was not repeated here. The chaotic ultimate nature of that victory was good for the soul but not one on which to build too much of a case that United were about to go flying up the table.

This one was much less exciting but in its way much better for that. Wins like Thursday’s aren’t really much long-term use on their own. They don’t represent any kind of blueprint for how to do things more generally. What they absolutely can and must be is a confidence-boosting feel-good turning point. That’s what made this game so important, and thus the nature of this result so potentially significant. Because here was something fare more tangible to latch on to as a pointer for the future. Now that Wolves game really could be a line in the sand.

United were still some way from perfect. West Ham still had far too many sights of Andre Onana’s goal – especially in a fairly even first half and perhaps most significantly when Emerson’s decision-making let him down disastrously moments before Alejandro Garnacho’s strike made it 2-0 early in the second. Even after this 3-0 win, United still find themselves boasting both a negative goal difference and fewer Premier League goals this season than Luton. This clean sheet was only their third at home all season. They are not back. Yet.

But they have turned another corner. The challenge now is to make sure it’s not just the latest cul-de-sac. There are enough reasons to think, despite ourselves, that this might be the case. Chief among those reasons is the identity of the players powering this run for United. Another brilliantly taken goal for Rasmus Hojlund, his fourth in four games in the Premier League after none in his first 14, is vital, while Garnacho was superb again and what fortune there was about his first goal was entirely absent from the points-sealing third he nabbed in the closing stages.

Casemiro looks back to his fighting weight, Bruno Fernandes looks markedly less grumpy and even Marcus Rashford appears to have been seamlessly reintegrated. From the crisis point of last week and the stick sent Ten Hag’s way over it, it’s ended up being a very, very good week for the club.

They have now leapfrogged a suddenly stuttering West Ham into the top six and, while a significant gap remains to the top five, more things appear possible via the league than has been the case for much of the campaign.

At the very, very least, today’s events here and elsewhere must see Chelsea accept the official crisis club mantle.

While Manchester United find themselves once again looking upwards and hoping there’s no bum’s rush heading their way next time out against Villa in a suddenly very important game, there is a glumness now engulfing West Ham.

This was disappointing. While there remains no lasting shame in losing at Manchester United there is currently something slightly undignified about getting rolled over like this for a team with top-six ambition of its own. With Manchester United still so very clearly a work in admittedly occasionally encouraging progress, no upwardly mobile team should be making it this easy for them.

This was United’s first home league win by more than a single goal all season. In the league at least, this is a West Ham domestic season in danger of drifting into nothingness. That’s an improvement on last season, and the Europa League still offers the tantalising prospect of greatness, but it’s going to be far harder to hit the continental ground running if they remain in their current bread-and-butter doldrums.

You can take the glass half-full approach and note that this is West Ham’s first league defeat in seven games, or you can remember that defeat was a 5-0 thrashing at Fulham and they haven’t won a Premier League game since pulling Arsenal’s pants down in an unlikely 2-0 win at the Emirates in December.

A poor January on the pitch – which also featured FA Cup elimination at the hands of Bristol City – was matched by a disappointing one off the field. January is never an easy time to do business, but it’s clear that David Moyes doesn’t fancy a few of their attacking options and they’ve managed to balls up both getting rid of those players and bringing in replacements.

Kalvin Phillips looks understandably but enormously rusty and came off the bench late here to have his pocket picked in the build-up to what would prove to be United’s third goal.

West Ham slipping below Manchester United in the table feels like a particularly significant moment in the season for both these teams.