Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United (Morata 55)

 

I say it every year, but an away match at Chelsea is a special kind of sporting torture. More often than not it involves scoring few goals and conceding many, and get this, you have to pay one of the richest men in the world thirty odd quid to watch it happen. Our terrible record at Stamford Bridge barely needs mentioning (the loss here made it one win in the last sixteen league games) but the fixture has taken on a bigger significance ever since Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s greatest ever manager, took up his office at Carrington.

Last year’s games here were a 4-0 tonking and a 1-0 Cup quarter final loss after Ander Herrera had been sent off. Undeterred, Mourinho ordered Herrera to perform man-marking duties on Eden Hazard again, and the Spaniard carried out the job to perfection at Old Trafford as United, in one of the best results of last season, came away with a 2-0 win. It was highly unlikely such tactics would be utilised again this time around with Herrera needed in the middle of the park as one of only two fully-fit senior midfielders. Fellaini was back unexpectedly, but was only fit enough for the bench. So, the United boss kept faith with the same XI that had beaten Spurs a week ago, maintaining the three/five at the back. It made sense, not only to match up with Chelsea’s formation, but also because, hey, we beat Spurs. As the boss said in his pre-match presser "Tottenham beat Liverpool 4-1, Real Madrid 3-1, but didn't score against us. My players deserve a little bit of credit”.

The main omission was obviously Anthony Martial. In his stubborn refusal to play Martial, Rashford and Lukaku together, Mourinho hurts the team and restricts our attacking potential. Mkhitaryan is a lovely footballer but he is dreadfully out of form, and had no business starting a game of this magnitude. Mata was never going to start at his former club given his propensity to disappear in away games, and his own patchy form, but his omission from the squad was a surprise. Matic though, was going to be one our key men at his old stomping ground.

Chelsea had come into this late Sunday encounter in slight disarray, after being swept aside 3-0 by an impressive Roma team in midweek. The defence, which Antonio Conte holds so dear, was schoolboy like, and the pundits afterwards focused on the sale of Matic as a key factor for their loss of midfield protection. Conte took action, dropping David Luiz from the squad and instead placing his faith in Andreas Christensen. N’Golo Kante returned after injury to form three in the engine room. As always with the Blues, whispers of dressing room unhappiness and the Russian tycoon’s itchy trigger finger were never far away.  Chelsea needed to respond.

After Liverpool and Spurs, everyone expected us to park the bus, but in fact United started positively, pressing high up the pitch and doing our best to get Rashford and Lukaku away running against their defenders. This wasn’t a surprise. With City beating Arsenal 3-1 earlier, they were now 8 points ahead. Dragging them back to 7 wouldn’t make a great difference – it was time to win, and banish those bad memories of pathetic away days at the top 6. The game was explosive for a top-of-the-table clash, with the first incident packed twenty minutes flying by.

Phil Jones scored an own-goal volley worthy of any bloopers DVD presented by Danny Baker, but the ref thought that Alvaro Morata had pushed him and the strike was chalked off. Less than a minute later, Rashford had a free header from close range to put us ahead, but he closed his eyes at the point of impact from Young’s cross and it looped over. Had he headed it downward, it probably would’ve beaten Courtois.

Chelsea responded immediately. United’s pressing had one big flaw; the coolness of Cesc Fabregas under pressure. The stylish Spanish schemer was never rushed and always seemed to have an extra second to try and create, and he was so successful at playing around United that his midfield partner Bakayoko, a summer signing from Monaco who had been quite disappointing so far this season, was able to make several piercing runs into the box. He tamely sliced wide when in a great position after a top centre from Zappacosta, and throughout the entire match was able to exploit the hole and take up great positions behind Herrera and Matic. Without Pogba or even Carrick (clutching at straws here) to put his foot on it, Chelsea seized the initiative.

Hazard forced De Gea into an untidy save when striking from the D, and from the rebound Fabregas headed wide. Chelsea’s system was now purring, and Morata was pulling our three centre-backs all over West London with his clever runs into the channels. The former Juventus and Real Madrid striker was a terrific outlet, with his pace (and ability to dribble directly if he had no help) giving United’s defence a real headache. At the other end, Lukaku had a snap shot parried away by his international team mate Courtois, as the first half continued to excite. We were having difficulty in launching counters, as Azpiliceuta regularly stepped out of the back 3 to block passing lines to Lukaku, plus our wing-backs, Valencia and Young, were having a tough time advancing into Chelsea territory.

One of the reasons Chelsea had begun to be dominant was that Hazard was getting more of the ball in attacking areas. Why? Well, simply, Chelsea had three in midfield to our two and we always struggled to retain the ball. But just as important was our unfamiliarity and unsuitability with the back three. We don’t, with Rojo still not back, possess a centre-half who is brilliant at bringing the ball out, and too often we had three players marking one, Morata. This meant in practice that Chelsea could occupy a chunk of our team with one man and thus pass around the players stationed in front, hence why Bakayoko and Hazard were picking up great positions. On the team sheet of course, Hazard was listed as playing up top with Morata, but the Belgian roamed around in a free role befitting his status as Chelsea’s star man. United didn’t assign one player to follow him, and so he was becoming more influential.

Still, half time came and went and we were in it. Our coach had noticed the problem with the space, and within 5 minutes of the restart two United players were booked for tough tackles on Hazard, keen to let him know he would not have as much freedom in this half. United’s centre-backs also started to push further up to stop the space between the lines. It needed to be done, but it inadvertently led to the goal.

Opta had put out the stat that no player has scored more headed goals in the big five European leagues since the start of last season than Morata. So of course he was unmarked to power home an admittedly towering header from a great ball from the ever resourceful Azpiliceuta. Jones had been drawn out to cover other threats, but we still had two centre-backs to cover the Spaniard, but Bailly and Smalling were caught napping and top strikers only need a sniff. 1-0.

Few teams are harder to play against when losing than Chelsea and you sensed straight away it was going to be an uphill task. It could’ve been two as Fabregas played in Hazard who swept a first-time effort straight at De Gea. Mourinho reacted quickly bringing on Martial and Fellaini; It was a welcome return for the giant midfielder, but it soon turned nightmarish.

Let’s not get this twisted, Manchester United have badly missed Fellaini, especially with Pogba out. His game changing qualities made him an obvious candidate for coming on, but it was clearly too soon. Even Stevie Wonder could see straight away he wasn’t fully fit. He was immediately pickpocketed by Bakayoko when dawdling on the ball and was lucky that the Frenchman blasted wide after being held up by Smalling. If he had waited a couple more seconds, he could’ve given the rapidly advancing Morata a practical tap-in for another goal. This was one of three Chelsea opportunities created by Fellaini’s clumsiness in possession and general lack of finesse. He was a direct hindrance to his side for a good while.

United then did fuck all for ages, or rather, Chelsea didn’t let us. The Champions then passed it around, happy to make United chase the ball, content to let the game drift into the closing stages knowing they could counter as the Red Devils pushed more players forward. In the final 10 minutes, Fellaini was stationed up front as a target man, ball after ball was slung into the box, and all of a sudden the mood of the game changed. It was curious that as much as we had been outplayed in the second half, you could clearly see Chelsea were bricking it in the last 10 minutes as they drastically dropped deep to deal with Fellaini. It was quite frantic.

The expensively assembled Man Utd of Jose Mourinho went route one in search of an equaliser, and the ABU’s loved it, I’m sure. Pretty much every team goes direct when losing in the last few minutes, but whatever. It was starting to work, anyway. Rashford flashed wide with a left footed half-volley from the edge of the box after a Herrera cross was headed out poorly. Then an even better chance – a hoof from Bailly, world class chest control and turn in the box from Fellaini, and a shot that forced Courtois into a good save. On the other hand, we were now vulnerable at the back, and Morata should’ve finished off a swift breakaway but got his feet in a muddle and blew a one-on-one in pretty much the only mistake he made all evening.

At one point during this onslaught, the ball trickled towards Matic out wide on the left with loads of red shirts in the box, and he let it out for a throw which he didn’t even take long. A minor detail but it annoyed me no end – just lump it in the general direction of Fellaini, you daft prick. As good as he’d been, he was constantly receiving it in 1 on 1 situations during this phase of play. The ball fell to him in a dangerous situation frequently in the last 10 minutes but he couldn’t do anything, it was pretty frustrating. I’ll forgive him though, he was the only outfield player who really was calm and thoughtful with his passing throughout. It’s not like we bought him to unlock a packed defence and nick us a goal in the dying minutes at Chelsea anyway.

It was end-to-end at this point. Lingard's long ball was flicked on by Fellaini (by now, our biggest threat) and Matic was fouled 25 yards out. Rashford took the free-kick, and it was deflected over. Chelsea cleared the corner, and that was that. Conte had got it spot on, and we were a tad lucky it was only 1-0.

Chelsea had obviously won the midfield battle. Kante coming back made a big difference to them, he enabled the superb Fabregas and Hazard, meaning they could focus on attack. Bakayoko, as mentioned before, was excellent with the timing of his runs, but fortunately for us he made the wrong decision almost every time to waste his chances. But I still do feel they could’ve been nullified if we had played a trio in the middle from the start, but with Fellaini not fully-fit it maybe wasn’t worth the risk.

Did Mourinho do loads wrong? Probably not. Some reckoned we were scared and terrible… We were a lot more offensive than at Anfield. In any case, had Morata’s incredible man of the match performance rendered discussion of our set up largely meaningless? We need our own talisman Pogba back sharpish for the big games. Oh and no more back three. Please. Even against City. Well, maybe in that special case. Obviously, for this game it was fine, but with Fellaini fit again, changing the system to a variant of 4-3-3 is a must for the big clashes. We just don’t quite have the personnel to truly make the most out of the back three/five.

Mkhitaryan was a disgrace, there is very little else you can say. His role was crucial, to link the forwards and midfielders, but he completely failed, barely touching the ball, and committing the ultimate sin in a Mourinho team in a big away game: completely failing to press and show your work-rate off the ball. Given that he fought his way back into the team last season partly based on his tenacity compared to some of the other creative players, this was a real shame. With the Armenian on the pitch, Man Utd may as well have played with ten men. He has been the player who has missed Pogba the most, his confidence is at rock bottom, and it’s getting harder to remember his last properly good game. When you’re off form like he is, the least you expect is a bit of fight - instead he looked like he didn’t give a shit. Perhaps the guy just needs a break, give him some time off and let him run riot in December. That, or hypnotise him into believing every game is in the Europa League. But we are entitled to expect more from someone who almost always this season has started in his preferred position and yet produced dreadful crap since September. 

There’s definitely a school of thought that you can’t blame the forwards due to lack of service, and to an extent I accept that. But also, fuck that. (See that intelligent counter argument?) We spent £75m on Lukaku, and despite his great start it’s becoming clear he can’t hold the ball up that well -he certainly didn’t here- and doesn’t create chances for himself frequently. He has to make the ball stick. This was the sort of 90 minutes from him I was fearing in big games when he was signed. The contrast with the all-action Morata (another red target in the summer) was stark. In mitigation, against the big teams we haven’t yet put in a class performance, and it is his first season.

The final whistle went and Conte went onto to pitch to celebrate a pressure-relieving win, blanking Mourinho. Moaning about managerial handshakes should be the sole preserve of Mark Hughes, but the incident did nothing to alleviate the rumours that the two bosses really don’t like each other. Not that I cared about such nonsense – it’s the international break now, with Germany and Brazil strutting their stuff at Wembley. Time to lick our wounds, regroup, and ensure we’re ready for Newcastle on November 18^th.

United (5-2-1-2) De Gea 8; Valencia 6, Bailly 7, Smalling 6.5, Jones 6 (Fellaini 62, 5.5), Young 5.5 (Lingard 78, 5); Herrera 6, Matic 7.5; Mkhitaryan 3.5 (Martial 62, 5); Rashford 6, Lukaku 5.

Chelsea ratings as well, because why not:

Chelsea (3-5-2) Courtois 7; Azpilicueta 8, Christensen 8, Cahill 7; Zappacosta 6 (Rudiger 66, 5.5), Fabregas 8 (Drinkwater 79, 5.5), Kante 8, Bakayoko 6, Alonso 6.5; Morata 9, Hazard 8 (Willian 87).

Manchester United 2-0 Benfica

Manchester United 2-0 Benfica (Svilar og. 45, Blind 78 pen)

Happy Halloween! Trick or treat? Hmm… I’ll go for an Anthony Martial trick, and the treat of another win, thanks. Preferably with no blood.

12 clean sheets in the last sixteen games in all competitions. 8 wins in as many games at Old Trafford, which is fast becoming a fortress again. A perfect 4 wins out of 4 in the Champions League. All but through to the knockout stage for the first time since 2014. Nothing is as effective as a few wins to change the mood around a club. We’re doing pretty well so far this season, y’know?

It’s been an ultra-professional job in Europe so far. Yes, the detractors could easily point out that it is a gentler group than some others, but we’ve stumbled and ended up eating pavement in bad groups before. Sometimes it would be good for Jose Mourinho to drunkenly fall over and hit the concrete himself in a Halloween accident, as maybe it would stop his prick like behavior. Before the match, he used his notes in United Review to seemingly have a go at the fans.  ‘I hope that you enjoy the game more than some of you did against Tottenham’. Probably this was a dig at the criticism of his football, or the small number of boos for the substitution of Marcus Rashford. He also suggested the fans were booing Lukaku himself, which is a clear case of #FAKENEWS. Although by now we all know how he operates, you would think that Mourinho would decide to exclude the supporters as a group to create a siege mentality against. Clearly, he went as a knobhead for Halloween.

But we can forgive his media games for the moment as his United side is proving pretty difficult to score against. We switched back to a back four after Tottenham, with Jones and Valencia again missing Europe. Young and Rashford were rotated, and Mata came back in after missing the last two games. With Chelsea away looming on Sunday wearing a scary Scream costume, Herrera was rested, with Scott McTominay starting in the Champions League in his place, a truly exciting moment for the lanky Lancaster lad.

It was Martial, full of confidence from the winner against Spurs, who was the best player on the pitch, giving Benfica defenders nightmares similar to ones small children get when watching the Exorcist. He was constantly dangerous, impossible to tackle, and the ball seemed tied to his foot at some stages, such as the audacious dribble past three players to win a penalty. In the only blemish on an outstanding display, the usually ice-cool Frenchman saw his spot-kick brilliantly saved by the 18-year-old keeper Mile Svilar, in the process becoming the youngest ever keeper to save a penalty in the Champions League. Some redemption then, for the talented kid after the bollock he dropped carrying Rashford’s free-kick over the line in Lisbon.

Benfica did keep the ball well, but United were breaking forward at pace. Lukaku’s shot from 20 yards was saved, before the Belgian headed over from a Martial cross, both chances coming from slick, fast moves. The Portuguese visitors only had one chance in the first half, but David De Gea was on top form. The Spaniard saved Diogo Goncalves' curling effort towards the top corner with a strong hand. At the other end, Martial left the right-back with twisted blood when turning in the penalty area but blazed over with his left foot after a poor touch. For all our great play, it did seem like it would be 0-0 at half-time, but once again, fate intervened in Svilar’s fledgling career.

Another great counter, featuring a sharp pass from McTominay surrounded by three players duly led to Matic striking from range, and his shot ricocheted off the post and went in off Svilar’s back. It was cruel again on the teenager. Forget Final Destination – the highlight reel of Svilar’s European travails against Man Utd will be enough to give any shot-stopper a nightmare. You had to feel for him – it almost seems like he is cursed. Or haunted. Or did a deal with the devil. Or something else vaguely to do with Halloween, I don’t bloody know. He did show his resilience when making a save one-on-one with Lukaku only moments later, though. Our star striker never quite looked confident or got it out of his feet, and maybe five games without a goal was preying on his mind.

Lingard was replaced at the break after a minor back injury and Mkhitaryan came on. United were impressive going forward with Mata hitting row J after a great Martial backheel had played in Darmian. It was a poor miss, a Texas Chainsaw Matassacre, you could say (I know, I know). But Benfica were growing into the game and starting to get the ball in United’s territory. Mexican striker Raul Jimenez had a shot saved, but saw a far better chance later on clip the post after Bailly gave the Old Trafford crowd a spooky fright with his horrendous under hit pass to Smalling being intercepted. Thankfully Jimenez only hit the woodwork, and his team-mate Goncalves had also seen an effort kept out by De Gea after skipping past Smalling.

Herrera was sent on to tighten things up and it seemed to work, as Benfica’s attacks soon died out like a comic relief character in Saw. The birthday boy Rashford was introduced for Martial (because heaven forbid was see an attack of Lukaku, Rashford and Martial, oh no) and he made an instantaneous impact, his direct mazy run ending only when being upended by a clumsy defender. With Martial off the pitch (and having missed one anyway) Lukaku put the ball down, but the manager seemed to communicate he didn’t want that, and via Herrera, Daley Blind ended up converting the penalty, hitting it straight down the middle. Although it would be nice for our number nine to get a goal, given his miss against Leciester, I don’t see it as a big deal, unlike some for the duties to be given temporarily to Blind, who of course, is hardly technically deficient.

We move on to Chelsea, with the penalty pass-the-parcel dominating the headlines, rather than the win, which suits Mourinho, of course. McTominay, was a calm presence on his full European debut, which was lovely, and the kid Rashford celebrated his 20^th birthday in style. No Nightmare on Eld Trafford Street for us, eh? Eh? So you’re telling me these Halloween references have been excruciatingly unfunny? Jeez, everyone’s an ‘Einstein’, as Jose says…

United (4-2-3-1) De Gea 8; Darmian 7, Bailly 6, Smalling 7, Blind 6.5; McTominay 7, Matic 8; Mata 6.5 (Herrera 68, 6), Lingard 5.5 (Mkhitaryan 46, 6), Martial 8.5 (Rashford 75, 7); Lukaku 6.5

Swansea 0-2 Manchester United EFL Cup 4th Round

Swansea 0-2 Manchester United (Lingard 21, 59)

After the disastrous 90 minutes against Huddersfield, Jose Mourinho desperately needed a good nights work to get the season back on track. The Portuguese boss got exactly that, thanks to a virtuoso performance from Jesse Lingard, admittedly helped by a Swansea side who were, ahem, not the most ambitious.

Events on the weekend had made this game vital in the quest for the ‘big M’ of momentum, but it was still the League Cup, and that means a slightly weakened side, with Valencia and De Gea left at home and Lukaku and Matic on the bench. Mata and Mkhitaryan were also dropped rested. Lindelof did indeed play, to some raised eyebrows, but really anything else would damage his confidence. No matter the circumstances, it was pleasing to see two kids get a chance, moreover, Phil Jones made it on to the bench, to puffed out cheeks from relieved United fans fearful of what Spurs would do to us come Saturday lunchtime. Whatever the team, a response was needed to the manager’s comments after Huddersfield regarding the ‘poor attitude’ shown.

When the team was announced, it looked like a 4-3-3 with either Blind or Tuanzebe in midfield, but in fact it was a back 5, with Lingard playing as the number 10 to great effect behind the two forwards. This setup led to United completely bossing the game, having total control of possession. Herrera and Darmian were both positive in the build-up and the Italian was rather adventurous in his right-wing back role.  

Jesse Lingard’s first league start of the season had been poor, but he was keen to make it up to the fans from the first whistle here. He instantly showed that he was up for the challenge when forcing a save from the Swansea keeper within the opening exchanges with a powerful long range shot. The Warrington born lad was constantly playing on the turn, looking to take on opponents, reveling in a role which gave him considerable freedom and pace ahead of him to look for. His first goal saw him receive reward for his proactive movement, with a classic third man run goal. Herrera fired in a strong low pass forward (he doesn’t do this enough, really) to Rashford whose clever flick put Lingard through, and the number 14 opened his body up and unerringly finished into the bottom-right corner. Cue a celebration where he mimicked playing a flute.

Jesse wheeling away after the opener...

Swansea were worse than they were when they were beaten here 4-0 in August, but then again, they had made 8 changes, and their attempt to get back into the game wasn’t helped by Martin Olsson limping off through injury in the first half.

The first 20 minutes of the second half was scrappy, with a decent number of fouls from both teams breaking up play. It was stop-start, but also, a tad dirty and cynical, given the tactical nature of some of these infringements. This passage of play was interrupted by Lingard’s second goal, another great move. Tuanzebe advanced into midfield before inviting Darmian to run down the wing. He sent in a cross and Lingard used the pace on the ball to head in from almost the edge of the area! Yep, a header from around 20 yards that fairly flew into the net. Was it Lingard or Alan Shearer?

... jubilant after putting United 2 up...

As the game entered the final stages, it was getting harder to retain possession as Swansea’s defence pushed up to the halfway line. They duly gave it a go and attacked, but our three Centre-backs were commanding in the air, and Romero made a couple of smart stops late on. This coincided with Mourinho puzzlingly bringing on Matic and Lukaku, but I suppose it makes sense to share out the rest between Herrera and Matic, and well, Lukaku must want to play every game at the moment anyway.

Both McTominay and Tuanzebe did well on their first starts of the season, which was lovely, and 4 academy players starting is good to see. Hopefully this will lead to more chances, I mean, saints alive… even Luke Shaw got some game time! The mostly forgotten, rather chubby defender got a whole THREE minutes for his second outing of the season. His medium term future at Old Trafford looks cloudy to say the least, but at least Mourinho hasn’t completely abandoned him. Given our struggles at left-back, the door must surely be open for him – although, better make sure it’s a double door if Shaw has to get through it.

Overall, it was a resilient display, with many things to enjoy; two fabulous goals from Lingard, the encouraging performances from the young lads, a clean sheet, and hopefully a return to form.

No comment

United (5-3-2) Romero 7; Darmian 7, Lindelof 6, Smalling 7, Tuanzebe 7, Blind 6.5; Herrera 7 (Matic 67, 6), McTominay 7, Lingard 8.5; Rashford 7 (Lukaku 67, 6), Martial 6.5 (Shaw 87).

CSKA 1-4 Man Utd 27th Sept

CSKA Moscow 1-4 Manchester United (Kuchaev 90) (Lukaku 4, 26, Martial 18 pen, Mkhitaryan 57)

Before the game, Jose Mourinho had called this CSKA Moscow side the best he had faced. This was, at best, extremely generous given he had played the Russian side in a Champions League quarter final with Inter. Although you can never turn your nose up at a long trip to Moscow, with the effects of the long flight and close-to-freezing temperatures, it must be said those in the know were arguing that this was, on paper, the weakest CSKA team for a good few years. Certainly they were inferior to the side who drew 1-1 with us two seasons ago. But even then, it was a surprise how straightforward this victory was.

This side is so free scoring at the moment it’s almost slightly uncomfortable. Russia away is not meant to be so inviting, and it looks stupid now to think that pre-match I was a tad pessimistic after seeing the lineup. The gaffer had left Valencia at home and said before kick-off that Jones and Fellaini were nursing knocks, but even considering these absences, I was gob smacked that Jose had chosen to go with a back 5 considering how poor we were using that system in his debut season. I didn’t really see a justification for it, surely it would be too defensive an outlook against a pretty uninspiring CSKA outfit?

Well, I was shut up as we were in front almost instantaneously through our new main man, Romelu Lukaku.

It was an incisive break. Herrera cut out a pass, and Matic gave it to Lukaku. He turned and brilliantly set Martial away with a right-footed through ball. The Frenchman faced up to the defender before shifting right to create half a yard, and stood up a delicious ball that our no.9 powered low past Football Manager legend Igor Akinfeev. An early goal, from Lukaku, from a top cross. A trademark, one might say, of early 2017-18 United. Soon after something else happened that is common for us, which is a glorious save from David De Gea to stop a goal. The man from Madrid showing terrific reflexes to stop a close range drive.

It was 2-0 soon later after a decent move down the right was ended by Mkhitaryan being upended in the penalty area. Was it a foul? It wasn’t the most clear-cut, shall we say. It was left to the ice-cool Martial to stroke home from the spot. What a penalty taker he is, by the way.

24 hours before, Liverpool had laboured to a 1-1 draw against Spartak, but Mourinho was showing Klopp how you’re meant to play in Russia. We were in total command and a third goal was no shock, although Vasili Berezutski won’t want to see his missed clearance from a pretty average Martial cross again, leaving Lukaku with a tap in for his 10^th goal for United. He’s finding this Champions League lark pretty simple, isn’t he? Akinfeev could only look on in disgust but I felt bad for him, as he hadn’t done much wrong yet had had to pick the ball out of the back of his net three times. The level of the CSKA defending was pathetically bad, with the famous Russian duo of Sergei Ignashevich and Berezutski and their combined age of 73 both looking like they were running with a backpack full of rocks.

It felt fairly ridiculous at half time that it was all going so swimmingly. A weird formation, a long trip away to Moscow, a few changes, and the rank, slightly discoloured white/grey kit – it’s not meant to be this easy. Even Lindelof was good. It was an absolute annihilation job from us, really stamping our mark on Europe after years of making even the gentlest away tie (such as Midgetland) look challenging. After all, we’d only won one of our previous 10 away games in the Champions League.

United hit their fourth not too long into the second half. CSKA gave the ball away poorly (again), Herrera played in Martial, whose shot was saved, but Mkhitaryan showed speed and desire (your defence is terrified) to get to the rebound first. It was a rout. Martial was the main architect of our moves, and the sky is really the limit for a talent like him. What a player.

The home side did get a consolation with Golovin scooping a pass over the back four and the 19-year-old Kuchaev chesting it down and hitting it between De Gea’s legs. I wasn’t too bothered, but it was quite heartening to see how annoyed Smalling and Blind were at losing their clean sheet. Such a mentality will stand the backline in good stead over the campaign.

Overall, a fantastic result bearing in mind how bad we’ve been away in European games since Fergie retired, regardless of how bad the opposition were. We’re in control of our group as we move onto pointless Palace.

United (3-4-2-1) De Gea 8; Lindelof 7, Bailly 6, Smalling 7; Young 6.5 (Darmian 67, 6), Herrera 7.5, Matic 7, Blind 7.5; Mkhitaryan 6.5 (Lingard 60, 6), Martial 8.5 (Rashford 72, 6); Lukaku 8.

 

Manchester United 4-1 Burton Albion League Cup 3rd Round 20th Sept

Manchester United 4-1 Burton Albion (Rashford 5, 17, Lingard 36, Martial 60) (Dyer 90+1)

Not much to report on this third round procession, but I’ll give it a go anyway. United unsurprisingly strolled to victory, given that we played 11 internationals and Mata and Rashford kept their places, so there was no danger of Mourinho taking the League Cup lightly this season – he wants to retain it and nothing less will do. So no kids in the side, which was a bit of a shame, but I suppose some fringe players needed minutes. Smalling, Lindelof, Darmian, Lingard and Herrera had precious few minutes under their belt so far this term, plus to top it off the new club captain, Michael Carrick, was making his first appearance of the season.

Martial and Rashford started together for the first time this season and ran riot. Young Rash read Lingard’s clever lay-off from a Carrick pass to tuck in for the early lead. United were all over Burton, and another goal soon followed. Rashford’s second goal was a thunderous snap shot from outside the penalty area with little backlift on the turn; United’s overpowered team were on easy street and within 36 minutes the game was over as a contest when Lingard made it 3-0 after a brilliant Martial run. Meanwhile Tony Marshall could’ve had a hat trick, so mesmeric was his dribbling, but settled for one, and a nice video below.

It was just very easy, all a bit cruel on Championship overachievers Burton, who at least had the glory of scoring a consolation goal at Old Trafford through Lloyd Dyer late on. Sub keeper Joel Pereira really should’ve kept it out, but alas (What a gig Romero has right now by the way. Doesn’t even have to complete the 90). We’re through, full of confidence and goals, and drew Swansea away in the 4^th Round. A good evening’s work.

United (4-2-3-1) Romero 6 (Pereira 78, 5); Darmian 7, Lindelof 6.5, Smalling 6.5, Blind 7.5; Carrick 7.5, Herrera 6.5; Mata 7 (Shaw 46, 6), Lingard 7.5, Martial 8.5; Rashford 8 (McTominay 64, 6).