A late equalizer by former West Ham midfielder Paul Ince grabbed a vital draw for United who seemed set for its first league defeat since Chelsea beat it in September.
Instead it moved on to 68 points -- seven clear of Blackburn Rovers who lost 1-0 at Arsenal, their first league defeat in 13 matches.
With weather causing the postponements of the matches between Newcastle and Ipswich and Sheffield United and Queens Park Rangers, only six premier league games were played Saturday -- and they produced only 12 goals.
West Ham, who opened its new 7,500-seat Bobby Moore Stand, named after the England captain who died a year ago this week, almost celebrated the occasion with a victory by leading 2-1 with only three minutes to play.
The Hammers' goals came in a four-minute spell midway through the second half from Lee Chapman and Trevor Morley and canceled out Mark Hughes sixth-minute opener for the visitors.
But with time running out Ince, who was booed, called a Judas and had bananas thrown at him by some Hammers fans still upset by his move to United in 1990, had the last laugh.
Across London at Highbury, Blackburn's hopes of winning the championship for the first time since 1914, took a knock as it went down 1-0 to Arsenal.
The only goal came from Paul Merson after 73 minutes, and Blackburn's misery was compounded by an injury to its Scottish international striker Kevin Gallacher.
He was carried off on a stretcher after 27 minutes with a head injury and paid the price for some typical bravery as he raced in to connect with a cross from Graeme Le Saux.
On Sunday, Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich denied Tranmere Rovers in a dramatic penalty shoot-out to earn Aston Villa a place in next month's English League Cup final.
Bosnich plunged to make three crucial saves from seven attempts to put his side through 5-4 on penalties and dash first division Tranmere's dreams of a Wembley final after an incident-packed semifinal had ended 4-4 on aggregate.
In Spain on Sunday, Real Madrid lost a chance to mount a serious challenge to Spanish league leader Deportivo Coruna when it drew 1-1 with Tenerife in a frenetic clash during which three players were sent off.
Real are now level in second place with Barcelona, who beat Deportivo 3-0 on Saturday. Deportivo heads the league with 38 points, four ahead of Real and Barcelona.
Tenerife has thwarted Real Madrid's championship bid in the season's last game for the last two years and knocked it out of this year's Spanish Cup.
In Italy, Zvonimir Boban and Daniele Massaro scored second-half goals to give AC Milan a hard-fought 2-1 win over Foggia on Sunday and consolidate the Italian champion's six-point first division lead.
Russian Igor Kolyvanov pulled back a late goal for Foggia, but not before Milan's goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi had set a record unbeaten run for a goalkeeper in Serie A, keeping a clean sheet for 929 minutes.
With weather wiping out most of Scotland's soccer Saturday, league leaders Rangers took advantage of their rivals enforced rest and opened up a four point lead at the top of the division with a 2-1 win at lowly Raith Rovers.
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