Match Rewind: Vote for Chicharito's best match

Over the last three months, we’ve been asking you to choose which great Manchester United games you want to relive in full.

 

With three matches streamed each week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – there has been plenty of chance to look back on your favourite moments.

 

Our latest vote focuses on our former goalscorer Javier Hernandez, also known as Chicharito, who celebrates his 32nd birthday today (Monday). To mark it, we’re inviting you to choose between four occasions that showed the lethal Mexican striker at his very best... 

 

 

Somewhat surprisingly, United had to wait until October to get their first away win of the 2010/11 Premier League season and, when it arrived, we had our young Mexican striker to thank for it. In just his 10th game for the club, at a hostile away ground and against inhospitable opponents in Tony Pulis's Stoke, Hernandez got the job done.

And how. In Wayne Rooney's injury-enforced absence, Chicharito opened the scoring at the Britannia Stadium with what can only be described as one the most unusual goals you'll ever see. After United worked a short corner, Nani's cross was headed back across goal by Nemanja Vidic, but the ball was behind Hernandez and dropping, without much pace on it. But the acrobatic youngster simply flew at it, using all his neck muscles to power it backwards, in the opposite direction to which he was moving. A truly amazing piece of skill. And then, just as the Potters thought they'd snatched a draw in the final 10 minutes due to Tuncay's equaliser, Hernandez popped up again to tap home the winner for good measure.

 

 

The Reds had fought for a moderately pleasing 0-0 draw in the south of France during the first leg of this Champions League last-16 tie in 2011. But there was much to do when the sides reconvened at Old Trafford three weeks later.

With Marseille only requiring a score draw to progress, United had to stay alert. As so often during his debut 2010/11 season, which brought 20 goals in 45 appearances, Hernandez was the man. His goals against the French side, on this occasion, are unlikely to linger too indelibly in the memory bank, but they were expert pieces of goal-sniffing. In the opening minutes, he tapped home Rooney's low centre at the back post and then, in the second period, with 15 minutes remaining, he did the same to a similar ball from Ryan Giggs. It was classic centre-forward play. A late own-goal from Wes Brown increased the nerves around Old Trafford, but Hernandez's double kept United on track for a place in that year's final.

 

 

The 2012/13 season has gone down in United folklore as 'the Robin van Persie season', due to the Dutchman's sensational 30-goal haul in all competitions, which led the Reds to an unprecedented 20th top-flight title in what was Sir Alex Ferguson's final season. But going under the radar was Chicharito's contribution (18 goals), which grabbed United some vital points – this match at Chelsea being an excellent example.

We'd not won a league game at Stamford Bridge since 2002, but when a David Luiz own-goal and the obligatory van Persie strike gave us a 2-0 lead before the interval, this was surely to be the day, right? Not necessarily. The Blues struck back through Juan Mata's excellent free-kick and a finish from Ramires, leaving the contest finely balanced at 2-2. Chelsea then saw Branislav Ivanovic and Fernando Torres controversially sent off, but the Reds were still searching in vain for a winner against opponents who saw themselves as unfairly scorned. But up popped the Mexican, after being sent on in the 64th minute. Within 10 minutes, he'd tapped home the winner, ever alive on the goalline to clip home Rafael's speculative shot.

 

 

Arguably the outstanding contribution of Hernandez's 2012/13 season arrived at Villa Park, where Ferguson's side found ourselves 2-0 down five minutes into the second half, thanks to a double from German forward Andreas Weimann.

HOW TO VOTE

 

Which Chicha classic do you want to see again? Vote now in our Match Rewind live blog.

 

The poll closes at 11:00 BST tomorrow (2 June) and we’ll show the full 90 minutes of the winning game, for free, on the Official App and ManUtd.com at 19:00 BST.