Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has admitted that his side "needed" to beat West Ham United in their Premier League clash at the London Stadium this evening.
The Hammers were reduced to 10 men after just 15 minutes when Sofiane Feghouli was shown a controversial straight red card, and Man Utd squandered a glorious chance to take the lead when both Antonio Valencia and Jesse Lingard missed from point-blank range within seconds of each other.
However, Mata finally broke the deadlock just past the hour mark before Zlatan Ibrahimovic sealed the points and a seventh consecutive win in all competitions for Jose Mourinho's side.
"We needed to win. We knew some results from our rivals so we had to get the three points. We had to score and luckily we did it," Mata told Sky Sports News.
"It started to feel like one of those nights where you have chances and don't score. The manager said just try to score, try to create something.
"There were spaces so I just tried to stay there and create chances. The most important thing is we keep this run of results."
United now sit sixth in the Premier League table, just one point off the top four.
Barney Corkhill
