Manchester United vs West Ham a few quick thoughts
Dan Tracey
August 14, 2017
1,792 Views
- Jose Mourinho sides are always stronger in the second season they so
- I think yesterday was perfect evidence of that as Manchester United steamrollered West Ham with a 4-0 win at Old Trafford
- The focus before the game would have been on Romelu Lukaku after his club record signing from Everton
- And the headlines would have been written about him also after a brace of goals on his home debut for the club
- With the results like this there are always questions as to whether the winning team were good or the losing team were bad
- I think it is fair to say that there was a bit of both at Old Trafford yesterday
- For as scintillating as United were yesterday, West Ham offered very little
- It was a return to forget for Javier Hernandez as he returned to Manchester in West Ham colours
- He was hardly given a sniff of goal yesterday as United surged forward in droves all afternoon
- This exciting United side peppered Joe Hart’s goal with chances and would finally break the deadlock on 33 minutes when Lukaku opened his account for the season
- He raced on to a through ball from Marcus Rashford and although his effort hit the post, it seemed as if opening day fortune was on his side as it trickled along the line and in
- First blood to the home side and from there on it was plain sailing
- The result was all but assured just seven minutes after the break when Lukaku scored his second of the game
- Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s free kick was speculatively landed into the box and the Belgian international was on hand to double the home sides advantage
- The perfect start for Lukaku and a lot of Fantasy Football managers will have been smiling also
- West Ham looked devoid of ideas and were pretty much second best to everything at Old Trafford, there were still 38 minutes left in the game but you knew that there were going to be more goals on the basis of the two teams varying performances
- And they would come once the introduction of Anthony Martial took place
- The French international was subject of a bid from Tottenham but on the evidence of this cameo, United will certainly not want to sell.
- He’d only been on the pitch seven minutes when he made it 3-0 after a neat finish minutes after Rashford had hit the post
- The procession and Martial’s brief involvement would not end their though as there was a french connection for the 4th and final goal of the afternoon.
- Martial threaded a perfectly weighted pass for Paul Pogba and with the former Juventus man being given extra licence to roam thanks to the signing of Nemanja Matic he only had one thing in mind
- He could have fed Lukaku the pass for a probable hat-trick but this time he went along and was rewarded for his endeavour as he placed the ball past the helpless Joe Hart
- Not a debut that neither Hart or his former Manchester City Pablo Zabaleta will wish to remember any time soon
- That result is not the start that Slaven Bilic would have wanted nor expected either
- They will need to put that one to bed quickly with a win this weekend
- As for United, they have laid down an early season marker as this side looks a different model from the previous campaign
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