Van Gaal went on to claim that United had exhibited a similar level of control against West Ham as they had at Tottenham, where Mauricio Pochettino’s side struck three times in six second-half minutes, but that the result at White Hart Lane had prevented him from saying so.
“We controlled the game,” he said. “But I cannot say that when we lose 3-0. The next day it’s: ‘Man United has played very lousy.’ But it was not true.
“I’m very happy that in spite of that defeat, 3-0, we can have the spirit this evening again like we have showed after the defeat against Liverpool.
“Two-zero in the Europa League against our biggest enemy and the next match was West Ham United and we were 1-0 behind and fighting back (to draw 1-1, in their first meeting).
“You cannot deny that my team has a lot of fighting spirit.”
Victory for United meant that West Ham signed off with a defeat in their final FA Cup game at the Boleyn Ground, which they will leave at the end of the season to move to London’s Olympic Stadium.
West Ham are vying with United and Manchester City for a Champions League place and manager Slaven Bilic urged his players to shake the disappointment out of their systems as quickly as possible.
“There is always that possibility (that the season will fizzle out), but at the end of the day we are not in a situation in the league that someone can say we have nothing to play for,” said the Croatian.
“We have seven big games and we are still big-time in the competition for Europe and we want to finish as high as possible.
“It can affect us tonight (Wednesday) and tomorrow maybe, but then on Friday we have to come together and bounce back. Make no mistake, we’re going to do it.”
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