THE LUK OF LOVE
United fans will just adore watching their team as Jose finally releases the shackles
FOR a moment, it looked like Jose Mourinho would not be able to resist.
Hook Juan Mata, send on Marouane Fellaini, tell Marcus Rashford his sparkling, trick-stuffed shift was about to end, but tell him to walk to the far touchline before being hauled off.
Waste a bit of time, the old chestnut.
Two-nil up, still a little while to go, can’t be too safe.
For a moment, it looked like Mourinho would not be able to resist just the tiniest bit of shop-shutting.
If he did try, even in the slightest, he never had a chance.
Everyone was having far too much fun.
This was a Manchester United team playing with the swagger, the panache and the arrogance of old. This was a Manchester United team enjoying putting a cowed opponent to the sword.
This was a Manchester United team relishing the awakening of a stadium that has slumbered through recent years.
As Anthony Martial – a fair replacement for the irrepressible Rashford – sauntered on to a Henrikh Mkhitaryan pass and clipped a simple finish past Joe Hart, Old Trafford was a vibrant, noisy, colourful throwback.
A throwback to when winning was not just common, winning with a flourish was common.
And the crowning encore was the fourth from Paul Pogba, whose edge-of-the-area strike was struck sweetly enough to beat a keeper who probably could not wait to get out of the place. Joyous and Jose are hardly soul-mates but there was a glee about the Pogba goal celebrations that suggested he has a collection of players who have been waiting to be unshackled.
There is, of course, a caveat and this caveat normally plays in claret and blue.
United swashbuckled, West Ham buckled.
Slaven Bilic cannot have found a single positive in this performance.
Slow, sloppy, slack. That was
just Pablo Zabaleta, but his hapless contribution was emblematic of his team’s resistance. It was the former City man’s embarrassing halting of Rashford that led to the setpiece that provided Romelu Lukaku with his second.
The less said about exactly what Arthur Masuaku was playing at when Mkhitaryan curled over an eminently defendable free-kick, the better.
He might have been still giggling as Lukaku laughingly nodded it in.
Of the outstanding individual contributions here, Lukaku’s was maybe the most difficult to evaluate even though his first goal, an emphatic uprightassisted finish from Rashord’s gorgeous pass, clearly sent a rush of confidence through his
team. The suggestion that Lukaku is some sort of flat-track bully has shallow foundation but he certainly shows no mercy on the less accomplished.
And as tracks go, they don’t come much flatter than West Ham for Lukaku. That is 11 against them and he has not long turned 24.
He will have far sterner tests, as will United, but even Jose must have been thrilled by one of the most exciting United performances post-Fergie.
Mourinho has reopened the United shop and, you suspect, it won’t be shutting soon.