‘World Cup can make Lukaku even better’
ROMELU LUKAKU stood, arms aloft, and celebrated becoming the Premier League’s latest centurion.
Job done for the £75million striker and, eventually, job done for Manchester United although not in quite as straightforward a fashion as Jose Mourinho might have expected, given his side were two goals up in the first 20 minutes.
The United boss described the first half as perfect and beautiful, and blamed international fatigue and pal Carlos Carvalhal’s clever tactics for the drop-off in the second.
During that first half of sunshine football, Lukaku grabbed his 26th of the season and his 100th Premier League goal thanks to build-up play from Alexis Sanchez and Jesse Lingard.
Sanchez added the second and United could have scored a couple more before half-time as Mourinho won his personal duel with countryman Carvalhal, the Swansea manager.
Mourinho said: “We did everything right in the first half, we played beautiful.
“The first half was perfect, but then they improved and we let it go. Possibly some players were tired. They let it go a bit but everything is fine. In six or seven players I could feel the intensity went down.
“We let them have the ball, we did not press so high and they felt they had a chance. But it is important that we take the points.”
Mourinho does not like picking out players for individual assessment so Lukaku will have to be satisfied with the unique Jose vote of confidence.
He added: “Lukaku’s evolution is clear. At Chelsea he was young, but he has been at good clubs. His movement, feelings and knowledge of every inch comes with experience. He is 24 and has a lot to learn. The World Cup can only make him better.”
Mourinho (below) has a bee in his bonnet about suggestions United will fail to finish runner-up to neighbours City and chose his programme notes to repeat his message. He wrote: “I think this club is in a good position. We are always looking to the future and, of course, we want to be the top team in the Premier League. “That is not realistic this season so, in the meantime, we must do all we can to secure second place, starting with a win today.” His players delivered. Carvalhal (above) said his team struggled to contain Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic in the first half, but actually Swansea were overrun by everyone else too. Keeper Lukas Fabianksi was the busiest Swans player and denied Lukaku a second, while Lingard was not far away from netting either. Swansea, totally outplayed for the first 45 minutes, woke up courtesy of a double half-time substitution which saw Tammy Abraham and Tom Carroll introduced to the action. The mark of a good goalkeeper is the ability to go from snooze mode to high alert in the blink of an eye and David De Gea certainly ticks that box.
Abraham added zip to the front line and twice in a minute tested De Gea. The first effort was palmed away to the keeper’s right, the second a low take along the ground.
The pats on De Gea’s back acknowledged the importance of that double save, which had threatened an unexpected comeback from the visitors.
Swansea are not the confidence-shorn, strugglers of pre-Carvalhal but they are still a team with only two away wins all season. And they were up against a United side who confirmed their status as the meanest home defence in the Premier League by making it 16 clean sheets for the campaign.
There was a funny moment afterwards when Mourinho invited Carvalhal to join him in the post-match press conference.
Carvalhal said: “Two fantastic saves of De Gea is the moment of the game. I am not happy with the score but happy with the second half. “Eight games remain to operate a miracle. If we play like this, we stay up.”