United cruise to keep Stoke in drop zone
With Sanchez set to join, United hit three to make Stoke suffer
IF only Manchester United had been as tenacious in pursuing Manchester City at the top of the Premier league as they have in trying to snatch Alexis Sanchez away from their rivals, this title race would still be alive.
As it stands, the leaders need to lose another four games to make things interesting. on current form, we would have to wait until the middle of 2019 for that to happen, so let’s not get too excited just yet.
It also depends on United and the rest of the chasing pack winning continuously down the home straight while hoping for an unlikely City stumble following that defeat at Anfield on Sunday.
Jose Mourinho’s side made the first steps by closing the gap to 12 points with a routine victory over Stoke City at old Trafford last night thanks to two wonderful finishes from Antonio Valencia and Anthony Martial. With goals like that, who needs Sanchez? Both were assisted by Paul Pogba who flourished in a 4-1-4-1 formation that enabled him to push forward and combine with the equally likely Romelu lukaku who got United’s third.
Pogba knows how difficult it will be to catch City now, but he warned afterwards that United will not give up the chase in midJanuary. ‘We’re far away but we’re going to try,’ said the Frenchman.
‘We see Man City are in front of us and they are losing but we have to go back to winning because we lost a lot of points. We have to try to catch them again. We have to focus on ourselves, keep winning and I think we will be oK.’
new Stoke boss Paul lambert watched from the stands, perhaps wisely choosing to sit this one out following confirmation of his appointment earlier in the day.
It left caretaker boss Eddie niedzwiecki with the unenviable task of trying to deny Mourinho his first win over Stoke as United boss at the fourth attempt.
It was never really in doubt after United took a two-goal lead before half-time in the rain and hailstones following their warm weather training camp in Dubai.
The sunshine break clearly did Valencia the world of good as he returned after a hamstring injury and fired his team ahead in the ninth minute.
The Ecuador international collected a crossfield pass from Pogba on the edge of the box and cut inside Joshua Tymon on his weaker left foot. you would never have known it as Valencia unleashed a stunning shot beyond Jack Butland into the top corner. It was the first goal with his left since he was a Wigan player a decade ago.
At that point, the outlook was grim for a Stoke side sitting third from bottom in the table who have already conceded seven goals away to City this season, and five at both Tottenham and Chelsea.
However, lambert will have been heartened by the response fromm his new team. Xherdan dan Shaqiri, Stephen en Ireland and Eric c Choupo-Moting all threatened before United produced a killer second seven minutes before half-time.
It came soon after a quite brilliant lssgba 50-yard crossfield pass from Pogba released luke Shaw galloping into space. ace.
Shaw pulled the ball back to Martial whose effort was blocked, but there was no stopping the Frenchman’s next effort.
Valencia dispossessed Tymon and fed lukaku who found Pogba. He provided the assist again, delaying his pass into the unmarked Martial who met it with an exquisite 25-yard finish.
lukaku got the goal his performance deserved in the 72nd minute, controlling Martial’s pass in the box and spinning away from Kevin Wimmer and Kurt Zouma to score low into the bottom corner.
It was the 50th goal Stoke have conceded in the league this season and one lukaku celebrated after being decidedly moody of late.
Mame Biram Diouf had Stoke’s best chance in the final minutes but David De Gea denied the exUnited striker who placed his follow-up effort woefully into the side-netting. lambert has work to do, and so too does MourMourinho if he wants to make further inroads on City’s aadvantage. ‘I didn’t watch liverpool beat Manchester City,’ he said. ‘ It doesn’t change anything. The distance is an important distance, I have been there before. They have their destiny in their hands.’ MANCHESTER UNITED (4-1-4-1): De Gea 6.5; Valencia 7, Smalling 6, Jones 7, Shaw 6.5; Matic 6.5; Mata 6 (McTominay 83min), POGBA 8, Lingard 6.5 (Fellaini 80), Martial 7 (Rashford 80); Lukaku 7.5. Subs not used: Pereira, Lindelof, Rojo, Herrera. Scorers: Valencia 9, Martial 38, Lukaku 72. Booked: Lingard, Lukaku. Manager: Jose Mourinho 7.5. STOKE CITY (4-2-3-1): Butland 5.5; Bauer 6, Zouma 5, Martins Indi 6, Tymon 5 (Wimmer 46, 6); Allen 6, Fletcher 6.5; Shaqiri 6, Ireland 5.5, Choupo-Moting 6 (Ramadan 60, 6); Crouch 6.5 (Diouf 70, 6). Subs not used: Afellay, Adam, Grant, Edwards. Booked: Ireland. Caretaker manager: Eddie Niedzwiecki 6.5. Referee: Anthony Taylor. Attendance: 74,726.