Jarrod Bowen’s controversial stoppage-time, spot-kick winner eased the pressure on West Ham United boss Julen Lopetegui at London Stadium on Sunday.

After somehow weathering a first-half storm, the Hammers tellingly turned the tide to leave Manchester United reflecting upon a sorry catalogue of wasted opportunities and a contentious late penalty call following Matthijs de Ligt’s challenge on substitute Danny Ings.

“We showed commitment, energy and mentality and we had the support of our fans, too,” smiled West Ham United’s head coach after second-half goals from substitute Crysencio Summerville and skipper Bowen - either side of a Casemiro equaliser - secured a tremendous 2-1 victory.

“I was very pleased that we could give them this win , especially because Manchester United are one of the biggest football clubs in the world.”

Without the suspended Mohammed Kudus following last Saturday’s forlorn 4-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, Lopetegui made four changes to his starting line-up, handing Łukasz Fabiański the gloves in place of Alphonse Areola while giving starts to Carlos Soler, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Edson Álvarez.

“Alphonse has our trust and confidence but Łukasz is always ready and we thought it was the right decision to play him today,” revealed Lopetegui. “He did well.”

Certainly, Fabiański quickly found himself the busiest player on the pitch during a one-way opening 45 minutes that somehow finished goalless.

A Hammers accident waiting to happen, things simply had to change and Lopetegui wisely made a triple substitution at the break, introducing Summerville, Jean-Clair Todibo and Tomáš Souček in a bid to bring some much-needed pace, power and positivity to wobbling West Ham.

That treble-chance reaped dividends with a quarter of an hour remaining, when the sliding Summerville stabbed home Bowen’s low cross.

“We were always thinking of playing Crysencio during the second half because Manchester United played at Fenerbahçe in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday,” added Lopetegui.

“We knew he could bring energy to the team and, fortunately, it worked for us.”

While Casemiro headed the visitors level on 81 minutes, there was still time for the rejuvenated Hammers to snatch victory after Video Assistant Referee, Michael Oliver, debatably directed David Coote to his pitch-side monitor after Ings tumbled under De Ligt’s challenge and the match-day official subsequently pointed to the spot.

“Danny said it was a penalty,” continued Lopetegui after Bowen’s cool, calm conversion had left his Red Devils counterpart Erik ten Hag fuming.

“There were two very different halves out there and, although Manchester United were better in the first half, we changed things and deserved to win. There was special energy in the stadium today.”

The Hammers now head to Nottingham Forest on Saturday (3pm) for their first Premier League game outside the capital this season.

“We're moving forward,” concluded Lopetegui.

“Even when you win, you still have to try to improve and we’ve now got to go on from here.”