MANCHESTER UNITED CRUISE PAST FULHAM
If this was Manchester United with half of the first team rested, it is scarcely imaginable what United at full strength would have done to Fulham here this afternoon.
This 3-0 win at Craven Cottage, with the second half played at walking pace, was still one of the most comprehensive, one-sided, complete victories of the Premier League all season.
Aside from one early miss from Luciano Vietto it was all one-way traffic and there was never the slightest feeling that there might be any result other than an away win. In that sense it could never have been a good game, because they always need competitive tension and suspense. It was more impressive as a performance from Manchester United, especially from Paul Pogba, who scored twice, and Anthony Martial, who scored the other.
But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did not even need to field his strongest team to get this thumping easy win. Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Eric Bailly were all rested, to keep them fresh for Paris Saint Germain on Tuesday night, which will be a very different prospect indeed. It is difficult to disagree with that decision given what we saw here, and the chasmic gulf between the two teams. Who knows what the score would have been here had Solskjaer pushed in all of his chips.
As good as Pogba and Martial were, the most striking part of today was just how bad Fulham were. Because they looked further away than ever from a team that is hoping to stay up. The first expectation of a side second from bottom is that they will do the basics right and be hard to beat. That after all is why they replaced Slavisa Jokanovic with Claudio Ranieri back in November. But this Fulham team in fact do the complete opposite: they get the basics wrong and are very obviously easy to beat.
Paul Pogba fired United ahead from an impossibly tight angle in the 14th minute, springing in behind the defence and onto a pass from Anthony Martial on the left, turning and shooting first time between keeper Sergio Rico and the near post.
Martial doubled the lead nine minutes later in style, collecting the ball on the halfway line, jinking past Denis Odoi and racing all the way into the area before stroking his shot beyond the reach of Rico.
Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku had an anonymous first half, outshone by his two French team mates. But he helped create the penalty that led to the third goal when he charged forward to pass to Juan Mata, who was bundled over inside the area by Fulham’s Maxime Le Marchand.
Pogba converted from the spot to put the game beyond Fulham’s reach, and was then substituted, most likely to keep him fit ahead of a tough schedule in the coming weeks.
THE INDEPENDENT, REUTERS