Samuel Takes West Ham Apart and United With Him

The moment that settled the afternoon came just after the hour, and it began with a tackle. Samuel, who had spent the first half running into the channels and the second half running at defenders, won the ball deep in Manchester United's half, exchanged it once, and then drove low past the goalkeeper to complete his hat-trick. The London Stadium, which had watched its side concede the ball for long stretches of the match, made a noise that suggested it had not entirely believed what it was seeing. It had reason. United finished with 56 per cent of possession and 545 completed passes; West Ham finished with six goals.

That is the shape of the afternoon, and it is worth stating plainly because the numbers will be quoted for a while. West Ham had 24 shots to United's four, eight on target to three, and an expected-goals figure of 3.37 against 0.75. The visiting side kept the ball beautifully and did almost nothing with it. The home side gave it away and did almost everything.

Samuel was at the centre of all of it. Three goals, an assist, three key passes, seven shots, four on target, four tackles won and 13.9 kilometres covered: a match rating of ten out of ten, and no argument anywhere in the ground. He has been at West Ham since the summer of 2058, signed from Middlesbrough for £20.7m, and at 31 he is playing the best football of a career that has taken him from Brazil to Spain to Teesside and now to east London. There was a time, not so long ago, when he was regarded as a useful forward at a middling club. That description no longer fits, and this was the afternoon it stopped fitting.

He was not alone. Dave Martin, who was replaced on 63 minutes, had two assists and four key passes in the hour he played. Fernando Antoniazzi scored once and made five chances, completing 60 of 67 passes. Vedat Dogan, the £38m record signing from Rotherham United last summer, scored twice against the club where he spent six seasons and won a trophy, and there was a certain neatness in that which nobody at the London Stadium seemed inclined to regret. Pablo Viña, a regular who began the day on the bench, came on for Dogan on 71 minutes and set up a goal.

United's afternoon had begun badly and got worse. Renzo López, their goalkeeper, went off injured on 71 minutes and was replaced by Pablo. Jorge Levi, who had scored, was withdrawn on 52. Renzo López's departure was the second injury blow of a difficult autumn; Fabián Silva, a regular striker, was already missing with pulled ankle ligaments, and Jamie Jones took his place. Louis Kerremans came in at left-back for João Rebelo, a regular, and found himself on the wrong side of the wave. Juan Carlos Forner and Alfonso have been a strong pairing at centre-back this season; here they were simply overwhelmed.

There will be those who say this was a freak, that a side cannot keep the ball so serenely and lose by five. But the pattern was not freakish at all. West Ham started with Dogan and finished with Viña, moved from 4-4-2 to a wider 4-4-2, and never stopped attacking. United's midfield kept the ball; West Ham's forwards kept the scoreboard moving. It was a lesson in what possession is for, delivered without a lecture.

Samuel left the field to an ovation that lasted longer than his walk to the touchline. He is 31, and afternoons like this do not come often, even to players of his quality. The old biscuit tin of press passes in my study holds a good many of them, from a good many players, and the ones that linger are rarely the ones with the most possession. They are the ones where somebody decided the afternoon. On a mild October day in east London, that was Samuel, three times over, and once more for good measure.