OES ANY MORE
e er. both runs came against Southampton.
■ Saints remain the only team in the Premier League yet to win a home game this season (D5 L2).
■ Southampton boss Mark Hughes has won just three of his last mond with teenager hael Obafemi. was the youngster’s first t in the league. His energy supposed to give United ething to think about. did far more than that. ut it was his colleague mond who began the ve for the opening goal. atic was brushed off by Southampton striker, in nside-right position. He ved inside, smartly finding only option in Obafemi, o drew blue shirts like s to a honeypot. uart Armstrong was ring alone on the right of area and his colleague found him, the Scot sending a sweet strike across David de Gea.
Marcus Rashford then lost possession twice in a few seconds. He picked up a booking, barging i nto Obafemi just outside the box.
That al l owed
Cedric Soares to curl a superb free-kick beyond De
Gea. But the
Saints, who had conceded 10 in their previous three Premier
League clashes, 25 Premier League games as a manager in the competition (W3 D9 L13).
■ Cedric Soares is the seventh player to score a direct free-kick for Southampton in the Premier League and first since James Ward- were undone in equally lax fashion.
Rashford redeemed himself for his early error twice over as Mourinho’s side hit back. First, he stayed strong, a Saints defender bouncing off him as he turned and charged forwards.
As one redand-white shirt came across to cover, he found Lukaku who did not even break stride, slamming the ball into the roof of the net for his first l eague goal since mid-september.
Actually, it was 981 long, long minutes for Manchester United supporters.
Moments later, Rashford was at it again.
Again showing good strength, he motored towards the byline, with Herrera ghosting in at the near post to supply the finishing touch by flicking in at the near post.
United of old would have gone for the jugular after halftime – but not this lot.
De Gea was called into action just once, a fingertip over preventing Redmond Prowse versus West Brom in February 2018.
■ Romelu Lukaku’s strike versus Southampton has ended a run of 12 games and 981 minutes without a goal for Manchester United in all competitions since netting against Watford in September. from grabbing the glory.
Mo u r i n h o said: “I think the result is quite fair. They had a better start than us. We were in trouble, organi s i ng a defensive line, we tried to protect that with playing three instead of t wo c e nt r al defenders.”
And Hughes admitted: “We have to view the result as a positive.”