MARTIAL’S AT HOME WITH OLE
TWO summers ago, Anthony Martial went AWOL from Manchester United’s tour of America and was at odds with manager Jose Mourinho, who was actively looking to sell him against the wishes of the Old Trafford board.
Martial could easily have left but Mourinho went first. Now the gifted but sometimes infuriating Frenchman is the spearhead of an emerging United team and very much part of the future of this club under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
There are still plenty of occasions when his Gallic indifference makes you sympathise with Mourinho, who privately wanted rid of Martial and publicly criticised him for leaving camp in LA to be at the birth of his second child. But this was one of those nights to remind you why he is worth the trouble.
A first hat-trick for United took Martial to 19 goals for the season — one better than his impressive breakthrough campaign at Old Trafford following the move from Monaco in 2015 that could eventually cost his club £58million.
Indeed, it is the first Premier League hat-trick scored by any United player since Robin van Persie in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season seven years ago.
It’s another sign that Solskjaer’s side are heading in the right direction. This was a 13th game unbeaten in a run that has brought 33 goals. They have moved to within two points of fourth-placed Chelsea and the pressure will be on if Manchester City win at Stamford Bridge tonight.
Further evidence of United’s resurgence came in the shape of Paul Pogba starting alongside Bruno Fernandes for the first time — the Frenchman having last kicked off a game nine months ago.
The partnership will take time to evolve but both players had far too much for a Sheffield United side who never looked capable of achieving the win they needed to leapfrog their opponents in the table. If Pogba’s return was an obvious talking point, it was his French compatriot who stole the show.
‘I’m very happy for Anthony,’ said Solskjaer. ‘When you get your hat-trick, it’s just unfortunate he couldn’t celebrate with our fans.
‘The third goal was a great goal but, for me, the first and the second were better. He’s in the box ready to go. We have worked on that, getting in that situation more often.
‘At times it was very, very good football. We could and should have scored more goals to put the game to bed. There’s still more to come and we shouldn’t be 100 per cent happy with it.’
For the Blades, this was a third away game in the space of eight days after the restart and one they faced without goalkeeper Dean Henderson — ineligible under the terms of his loan from United — and the suspended John Egan.
They offered little in the way of an attacking threat — save for a shot from George Baldock in the first half that was blocked by Harry Maguire — and failed to test David de Gea, whose form had been under such scrutiny coming into the game.
Their defending wasn’t a whole lot better and United were in front as early as the seventh minute when Oliver Norwood failed to deal with Aaron WanBissaka’s throw-in on the right.
The ball ran for Marcus Rashford who drilled a low cross to the near post and Martial had continued his run into the box, getting in front of Chris Basham to turn the ball home.
Rashford was full of creativity but his finishing was a little off as he bundled a shot wide of an open goal from Martial’s pass under pressure from Jack Robinson, then fluffed a volley when Pogba played him in with a sumptuous chip.
Maguire also had a header ruled out for pushing Phil Jagielka, who had replaced Egan two months short of his 38th birthday.
Martial struck in the 43rd minute, again reacting faster than Basham to score from closerange after Wan-Bissaka had driven past Enda Stevens to send over a low cross from the right.
The third was the best of the lot. Fernandes produced a lovely flick to direct Wan-Bissaka’s pass to the feet of Martial 16 minutes from time. He played a one-two with Rashford and then dinked the ball nonchalantly over goalkeeper Simon Moore as Henderson’s replacement dived at his feet.
‘The goals are ridiculously cheap — basic errors,’ said Sheffield boss Chris Wilder. ‘People will be shaking their head to think we’ve kept so many clean sheets.
‘We look pretty tired and we need to find an answer quickly. I don’t want us to fall off the side of the cliff.’