It is the big four once again! Manchester United have managed to score 4 goals for the fourth time this season. Unfortunately, this time we were unable to keep a clean sheet and thus conceded our first goal at Old Trafford.
Marcus Rashford got Manchester United off to the perfect start by scoring in the 5th minute of the game. A great little touch by Lingard was pounced upon by the striker who tucked away the first goal of the night with a sublime finish.
Looking sharp having taken up the centre forward position, Marcus Rashford was there again on the 17th minute to double the lead. This time from a 20 yard screamer which deflected off the inside of the post before going in.
Our third goal was scored by another academy product, Jesse Lingard. Following some great work by Martial, Lingard's deflected shot found the back of the net.
At half time, Juan Mata was replaced by Luke Shaw and Manchester United changed their formation to a 3-4-3. The left back who is desperate to prove his worth to Jose Mourinho finally got his chance after recently returning from injury. His return was almost marked with a goal when he had the ball in the back of the net, but the offside flag was (wrongly) raised.
Our next chance came to the Frenchman who was on fire throughout the whole game. After demonstrating some outstanding footwork, Martial's shot was very well saved by Ripley. However, Martial's persistence proved too much for Burton to handle as he had the ball in the back of the next moments later. Some good link up play between Martial and Rashford allowed Martial to finally get his name on the score-sheet.
One change which seemed to be very popular amongst the Old Trafford crowd was Joel Pereira coming on for Sergio Romero. Jose Mourinho has always praised the Portuguese goalkeeper and shown faith in him and today was his chance to make another appearance in front of the fans. Just after the crowd finished singing his name, Pereira made a huge error in the box, leading to a scramble in the box which ended in Dyer netting a late consolation goal for Burton. This was not the sort of impact Pereira was hoping to make.
The two stand-out performers today were Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial. There is no doubt that these two youngsters are the future of Manchester United and will lead the club to great successes. This season, it has been the case where whichever one of these two players started, the other would come on as a substitute and bag himself a goal. As unusual as this sounds, this was the case. However, today they both played together and managed to grab three goals between them and the combination play between them looked sharp and effective. One thing is for certain, Jose has a very tough job in deciding who starts every game as Rashford, Martial, Mkhitaryan, Lingard, Mata and Lukaku have all been exceptional, not the mention the potential return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic soon.
Overall, it is a good result for us. Despite the unconvincing last 10 seconds of the game, Manchester United performed well and it was a chance for many players who have sat out the last few games to showcase their talent. It was great to see Manchester United striving to keep scoring despite already holding the lead. This is something we have missed in the last few seasons, but the attacking flair of the old Manchester United looks to be coming back into fashion.
Our next game is on Saturday where we will face Southampton away at St Mary's Stadium. This will be a tough game but we have showed that we are capable of terrorising any team and can certainly come away with the all-important three points. Let's hope we can keep our great start to the season going! Come on UNITED!
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