You may have the back-to-work fear this evening but so do five of Joe Mourinho’s squad.
The Man Utd boss has changed almost half of his side as they prepare to face Wst Ham in East London.
Rojo, Darmian, Jones, Carrick and Lingard are in for Fellaini, Martial, Bailly, Smalling and Blind by my count.
Irish international Darren Randolph starts for the Hammers in goal of course.
West Ham: Randolph, Obiang, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Kouyate, Nordtveit, Antonio, Feghouli, Payet, Lanzini.
Subs: Carroll, Adrian, Noble, Ayew, Fletcher, Fernandes, Quina.
Man Utd: De Gea, Valencia, Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Ander Herrera, Carrick, Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Ibrahimovic, Lingard.
Subs: Mata, Martial, Smalling, Young, Rashford, Romero, Fellaini.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
The three-o-clockers are finishing up around now and there’s plenty to digest here.
The highlight of those aforementioned 3pm kick-offs? This hipster-looking chap who just noticed Christian Fuch’s name:
“A bit of both,”says Mourinho, when asked if he planned out his team selections before Christmas or reacted over the festive period.
“But I thought against Boro it was important to have Smalling fresh for this game. Some players react better than others with the accumulation of matches. But, we have no excuses. We have the same problem as West Ham. We are the privileged ones with more time to rest so may the best team win.”
And we’re off at the London Stadium.
Payet has a first sighter at goal but it doesn’t trouble De Gea. With Marseille said to be ready to table — as is the verb, at this time of year — a £30m bid, who knows if we’ll see much more of him after this month.
He was doing this in the warm-up:
Payet again causes some concern in the visitors’ box. He picks up the ball in front of the D but his shot is dragged wide.
It’s pretty congested in the middle of the field.
Good save De Gea!
Lanzini feeds Payet on the right who draws two defenders. The Frenchman returns the ball to Lanzini, who’s now free and his solid strike is parried behind.
Ibra gets the corner away at the second attempt. Bright start for the Hammers.
Mike Dean hates bubbles.
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Sofiane Feghouli has been dismissed!
It was 50-50 and I presumed it was Phil Jones who was in trouble.
Feghouli overran the ball and hurt Jones but that was never a red. Gary Neville agrees.
Differing views. What did you make of it?
Man Utd are enjoying plenty of the ball but have yet to do anything of note with it since that red card decision.
Payet’s been booked by Mike Dean and this is the most animated the West Ham support have been since Upton Park.
Almost 35 minutes on the clock now and Man Utd have yet to have a shot. This isn’t a great game is it?
How has that stayed out!
What a save from Ireland No 1 Randolph.
The ball was squared to the edge of the six-yard box, Valencia turns it goalwards but Randolph claws it out. The goal software shows it was maybe 75% over the line.
Jesse Lingard then turns the rebound off the post somehow and it’s cleared. What a let off.
Sky have tweeted a video of that red card tackle; what’s your verdict?
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Darmian’s booked for body checking Valencia. Neville reckons the ref is in ‘a muddled state’ in which he doesn’t know what’s a yellow or red.
Save! Lanzini curls in shot and De Gea has to save acrobatically.
Mourinho sends his subs out to warm up.
The sides go in scoreless, with the hosts a man down and Mike Dean very much the story.
What did you make of that?
Alan Smith suggests that Mike Dean likes to be the centre of the story while the normally even-tempered Niall Quinn ‘calls out’ the ref’s arrogance and describes that red card as rank bad refereeing.
The players are reemerging from the tunnel with Juan Mata about to be introduced in pace of Darmian. Carrick goes to centre half and Rojo goes to left back.
United have started at a higher tempo after what was surely a good chat from Mourinho.
Randolph won a foot race with Zlatan after a back pass as under-hit.
Rashford’s warming up and his pace would be welcome.
More Mike Dean chat!
The ball’s hopped him from five yards and United win possession 35 yards from West Ham’s goal.
Kouyate absolutely cleans out Mkhitaryan with Gary Neville arguing it’s worse than Feghouli. Not even a booking though.
Huge chance for West Ham.
No one scored more headed goals in the Premier League in 2016 than Michail Antonio. He got his head on the end of a free kick there but glanced it wide.
Marcus Rashford replaces Jesse Lingard. Let’s see if he can stretch this tiring West Ham defence then.
What a chance for West Ham! Lanzini plays Antonio through but he shoots straight at DDG.
The Spaniard breaks the deadlock after great work from Rashford.
And with that, Mourinho shuts up shop. Mkhitaryan is replaced by Smalling.
Carrick goes back into midfield.
Here comes Andy Carroll for West Ham and it’s — surprisingly — Payet to make way.
Pogba first-times a shot just wide of Randolph’s far post. He should have hit the target and made the Irish keeper work at least.
Randolph is almost caught out! A Rashford shot squirms under his body and hits the post before he gathers it.
He looks offside but Zlatan finishes well and this is over, you’d guess.
He’s pretty obviously offside.
Ayew’s on for Lanzini but Gary Neville’s lapsed into a long discourse about Mike Dean’s ‘weird’ performance and hasn’t noticed.
Mike Dean mercifully brings proceedings to an end.
It was controversial but Man Utd’s winning run continues. What did you make of that?
