Football: are Manchester United “back up to speed”?

There is “something ominous” about the way Manchester United have started the season, said Stuart James in The Observer. They have won both of their first two Premier League matches 4-0, producing “devastating spells of attacking football”. True, they will face much tougher opponents than Swansea, whom they defeated last Saturday, but they look like a side who can challenge for the title. Finally, United are “back up to speed”, said Paul Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. It’s not just that they’re winning. It’s that they’re playing the way United teams are supposed to play: they’re “attacking fast” and overwhelming opponents. Since Alex Ferguson retired, the Red Devils have too often played “ponderous football”, but in the first weekend of the season, two of their players – midfielder Paul Pogba and forward Romelu Lukaku – were the fastest in the league. The flurries of goals are a welcome change, too: their measly tally of 54 last season was merely the league’s eighthhighest. Only now, in José Mourinho’s second season at the club, does this truly look like one of his teams, said Chris Wheeler in the Daily Mail. Having signed Pogba last year, the manager has just brought in two more “imposing six-footers” – Nemanja Matic in midfield and Lukaku – giving the side the “power and athleticism” he likes. It is Pogba who “seems to be the key to this team”, said Sam Wallace in The Sunday Telegraph. He “loomed over every aspect” of the Swansea game, contributing to “every critical moment”. And in Matic, the side have the defensive midfielder they have long needed, said Daniel Taylor in The Observer. Three weeks after joining, he is already “fitting in seamlessly”. That makes Chelsea’s decision to sell him all the more confounding. They may just see their former player “lift the Premier League trophy in another team’s ribbons”.