Match Report: Manchester United begin Premier League bid with emphatic fashion
By Tom Stewart
José Mourinho’s Manchester United began their bid for the Premier League title in the 2017-18 campaign in emphatic fashion as the Red Devils scored four goals past West Ham United.
A brace from summer signing Romelu Lukaku led Manchester United to victory in their opening game with a goal a piece from Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba. A dominant United side had very little to defend against as Bilic’s men were lackluster in attack and a defensive game-plan was not enough to get any points from the last game of the opening weekend.
United’s new #9 knifed in a Rashford pass from close range which rattled across the left post into the side-netting after continued pressing from the club in red. Lukaku then headed in past Joe Hart via a Henrikh Mkhitaryan set-piece at around the 50-minute mark to make it 2-0. The striker came close to getting the fabled debut hat-trick but just fell short. Anthony Martial later scored coming off the bench to all but ensure victory for Manchester United with Paul Pogba netting from outside the box in the closing stages of the match to put his team at the top of the table in the first week of league competition.
Slaven Bilic handed competitive debuts to Joe Hart, Marko Arnautovic and former United man Javier Hernandez who showed character among a team with weak performances. Despite these reasonable signings, a statement of intent from the East London outfit didn’t appear to be present on the day as very few chances were created. For a brief moment, momentum seemed to shift in the favour of West Ham United after both Mark Noble and Edimilson Fernandes were swapped for newcomer Declan Rice and Diafra Sakho. However, the visitors continued to be pressed and any sign of a created chance was made short work of.
Overall, there was little to be positive about in West Ham’s performance as they failed to defend attacks for most of the game and any chances made were squandered. One criticism was pointed at Arthur Masuaku who appeared to laughing when marking Romelu Lukaku on a set-piece and failed to present any defensive challenge. Diafra Sakho also put in a weak performance after coming on and made little effort to challenge the Old Trafford back-line. Chicharito stuck out in a farcical side by helping towards creating chances in the final third.
Writer’s Perspective
Manchester United
Reds can have a lot to be happy about from this performance as the central midfield of Matic and Pogba moved with freedom and made space for the front line to create chances and attacks as well as contributing to attacking plays themselves through sublime long passing from the two.
The talk that Nemanja Matic signing for Manchester United would grant Paul Pogba more room to move forward with creativity proved to be true in this game as the Frenchman provided a strong attacking threat throughout the game. The performance of the former Chelsea midfield maestro Nemanja Matic rose questions as to why he is not a current Chelsea player with the midfield problems Chelsea had on Saturday. His performance showed experience and class as he made passing and moving around the Irons look easy and his current form as a United regular is that of title-winning material.
Marcus Rashford was also played to his strengths as the series of breakaways in the second half focused on giving the youngster passes he could use to take forward down the wing and test the fullbacks through swift dribbling and close control - a trait that gained him acclaim from players, managers and pundits last season.
The performance on display today was that of a real Premier League title contender and it showed a great amount of promise for the season ahead. The attacking depth that the club has available on the bench should give Jose Mourinho something to think about amid consensus that Anthony Martial is not in the manager’s plans for the season and that he may prefer Jesse Lingard as a main option on the wing. However, that doesn’t warrant that Mourinho halt his chase for the mystery ‘4th signing’ whether it be Ivan Perisic, Serge Aurier or Fabinho. The latter two would seem more likely as they are in need of a quality full-back on the left-side as it as the Patrice Evra-shaped hole has proved struggling to fill.
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