If anyone knows a thing or two about a wonder save to secure three points it is West Ham United goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
Away to RSC Anderlecht, the French stopper produced a remarkable palm to deter Fábio Silva from close range, while against Silkeborg IF he made smart saves to deny Anders Klynge and Søren Tengstedt to maintain the Irons' 100 per cent UEFA Europa Conference League record.
When Areola was brought on at half-time for Łukasz Fabiański at Old Trafford he probably expected to be busier. While Fred struck the post, arguably his most intense action came when he was ushered forward by David Moyes for a late corner that the Hammers sadly could not force into the net.
Instead, it was the opposition stopper who took the headlines as West Ham United fell to a 1-0 defeat away to Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.
And Areola said it was only the work of David de Gea, who stopped Michail Antonio, Declan Rice and Kurt Zouma with three exceptional saves, that saw the Irons head back to east London empty-handed.
“I think we deserved more than this [result],” he exclaimed. “We had lots of opportunities at the end – but De Gea made the saves. He has always been a top goalkeeper and he has done the job today for Manchester United.”
After the break, the Hammers had chances – and could have netted with Michail Antonio, Craig Dawson and Saïd Benrahma also going close at Old Trafford.
Areola believes the Irons were unlucky – as a Marcus Rashford header proved enough to determine a second successive 1-0 home Premier League win for the hosts at Old Trafford.
“We started to control more of the ball in the second half,” added the No13, who replaced Fabiański at the break after the Pole suffered a knee injury. “We tried our best and we were unlucky to have not found the net.”
