Champions lose easy points

West Ham 2 Manchester Utd 1:It is not really in Manchester United's nature to steal a victory and on Saturday they were apprehended by West Ham before they could get clean away with three points. Alan Curbishley's busy team had seldom looked as if they would collar the visitors after Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring but United's defence was ultimately to be breached twice by headers from set-pieces.

That is a mundane way to lose and Alex Ferguson's side looked as if they had forgotten how to muddle through for a win. Their hopes of a forgettable yet comfortable victory disappeared when Ronaldo, invited to make the lead 2-0, drilled a 67th-minute penalty well wide after Jonathan Spector had handled. The goalkeeper, Robert Green, had previously saved all three spot-kicks he had faced in the Premier League this season, but the Portuguese did not demand any exertion of him.

Ronaldo was off target and United were eventually swallowed up by their overall aimlessness. The shock lay in the predatory fashion in which West Ham capitalised. After all, Curbishley's side are not equipped for swashbuckling play at the moment.

The manager talks often of injuries. There is a corridor in the ground lined with pictures of the current squad, but scans, x-rays and medical reports swim in front of Curbishley's eyes when he tries to peer at those faces. Scott Parker jarred his knee at the weekend and Nolberto Solano and Fredrik Ljungberg both tweaked their hamstrings. Authorities on Upton Park ailments suggest that the injury list runs - or limps - to 14 names.

Even so, Saturday's outcome, delivering a third consecutive win over United, must have made the home team feel they could caper through any number of handicaps. Considering that they now go to the Emirates tomorrow they had better hold tight to that sense of ebullience.

On Saturday the crowd was ecstatic by the close, moving Curbishley to explain to Julien Faubert, the Frenchman still to make his debut because of ankle and foot problems, that "this is the West Ham noise". At a stadium where the club had not won since October 21th the midfielder may have been under the impression that the characteristic sound was of heavy sighing.

If Faubert heard any of that at the weekend it would have been emanating from the visitors' dugout. Ferguson, serving a touchline ban, was not within earshot, ensuring that his voice was pristine for some dressingroom denunciation afterwards.

"It's a rare disappointment," he said in the comments for public consumption. "I think we need to go on a long run now. In many ways the season starts on January 1st."

There was not much running from a flaccid United on Saturday. Instead they seemed determined to dwell on a ruthless opener in which Louis Saha turned play out to the left and Ryan Giggs crossed perfectly for Ronaldo to head beyond Green after 14 minutes. Onlookers, in truth, may have been as deluded as United in seeing no risk of harm to the visitors.

Carlos Tevez, back at the club he did so much to save from relegation, took the applause of the home support and gave nothing to the match itself, but United were in little apparent danger. The vim and enterprise of West Ham, as it turned out, was sapping the visitors more than might have been expected.

Maybe there is too quick an assumption that Ferguson has the means to cope with every eventuality. When it emerged that neither Wayne Rooney nor Michael Carrick was in the squad the immediate reaction was to assume that they were being rested.

Both, in fact, were unwell but should be available for the home game with Birmingham City tomorrow.

United as a whole grew woozy when put to the test at Upton Park. With Dean Ashton and Anton Ferdinand on as substitutes the visitors had a lot of tall men to contain and failed to keep them all captive. Ferdinand outjumped Darren Fletcher to head in Mark Noble's corner after 77 minutes. The defender, back from injury at the close of a turbulent year, declined to mock his sibling Rio in the United ranks. "He's a big brother, isn't he?" said Anton.

The winner, eight minutes from time, was Matthew Upson's first goal for West Ham.

Noble skilfully flighted a free-kick and the centre half outjumped Vidic to beat goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak. Such harm from set-pieces reminded United of the risks they will run if they repeat Saturday's lethargy.