West Ham are finding traction under Manuel Pellegrini

West Ham’s victory over Manchester United on Saturday establishes them as a dark horse candidate for best of the rest in the Premier League this season.

Much of the press about West Ham’s win will surround the limp performance of José Mourinho and Manchester United team. That is justified to an extent — United’s implosion-in-progress is perhaps the story in the young Premier League season.

Emphasizing United’s poor form does a disservice to what West Ham mustered on Saturday however.

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Though the Hammers were perhaps lucky to score three goals with only three shots on target, their control of the game in the midfield and on the flanks suggests that Manuel Pellegrini’s ideas are finally taking hold.

It seemed lost in a summer full to the brim with the World Cup, transfer news and other turnover at the Premier League’s bigger clubs, but Pellegrini’s arrival at West Ham should be considered something of a coup.

This is the same West Ham team, after all, that tends to hunt — and attract — the David Moyeses and Sam Allardyce’s of the soccer world. Scoring a manager with Champions League experience — not to mention one with a Premier League title to his name — isn’t something that a club like West Ham is supposed to be able to do.

Yet they did, and with his arrival came touches of class elsewhere on the team. After years of being linked to some of the biggest clubs in Europe, Felipe Anderson made his way to East London for a club record fee of £36 million. He was joined by less flashy, but still vital additions in the form of ex-Borussia Dortmund winger Andriy Yarmolenko and promising French centre-back Issa Diop.

The lily those signings gilded was formidable even if West Ham have suffered ups and downs in recent years. Marko Arnautović might not be top tier, but at his best he can decide games all on his own. Kevin Noble provides solidity and the occasional dazzling pass from the center of the park. Declan Rice, a product of West Ham’s youth system, is beginning to distinguish himself at the base of midfield.

This wasn’t precisely the same thing as Liverpool’s shopping spree, but for a team that only needed to match or better the likes of Everton, Leicester and Burnley, it was an encouraging start.

Three losses in three attempts to start the season hinted at a potential crisis, but with the media spotlight focused elsewhere — see: Manchester United — Pellegrini managed to power through and begin to tap into his team’s potential.

A 3-1 win over Everton was their first of the season in the Premier League, and they followed it up with a more-than-respectable 0-0 draw with Chelsea. That latter result looks all the more impressive after watching Chelsea hold their own against Liverpool on Saturday.

If those results landed on anyone’s radar, no one might have been able to predict that Manchester United’s season — and Mourinho’s future with the club — might hinge on their match early Saturday.

In each of these last three results, West Ham’s success has come more from a rediscovered rigidity than anything else. Pellegrini is getting the best out of his full-backs Pablo Zabaleta — with whom he’s worked before at City — and Arthur Mansuaku. Together with dedicated midfield cover in the form of Rice, West Ham can corral formidable attacks like Chelsea’s, or individual aces like Romelu Lukaku, and thus keep West Ham in matches they should probably be losing.

As Anderson and Yarmolenko gain experience in Pellegrini’s system, one can expect even better returns from them as well. Come spring the Hammers might be competing with Manchester United for a spot in Europe next season.