Manchester United 3-0 Leicester: In-form Marcus Rashford’s brace and a Jadon Sancho strike see the Red Devils cruise to victory – as they close the gap on second-placed Man City to three points.
As far as Marcus Rashford is concerned you can take your pick from the statistics. Twenty four goals for the season, a personal high. Sixteen in seventeen games since the World Cup. Or seven consecutive goalscoring Premier League appearances at Old Trafford, the first Manchester United player to do that since Wayne Rooney in 2010.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, Rashford’s run is remarkable. The 25-year-old looks and no doubt feels like a man who cannot miss. Had Leicester possessed such a player here they may have turned an opening 20-minute spell of dominance in to something more tangible then footballing merit marks.
But at United now there is a wider perspective to take. This is not a season to be viewed through the prism of the performances of just one man, no matter how exceptional. No, Erik Ten Hag and his players need to ask themselves if they have a realistic shot at winning the Premier League.
There will be some who will not have it, who say that a five-point gap between United and leaders Arsenal is too many. They may also say the gap in quality was evident when Arsenal beat United at the Emirates last month.
But, after their own win at Arsenal last Wednesday, Manchester City were considered favourites for the title. After this weekend’s games, United are only three points behind City so surely they, too, are in this race?
Marcus Rashford scored in both halves of Manchester United’s win against Leicester City to keep the pressure on their rivals
Jadon Sancho also got on the scoresheet just after the hour mark to give United a three goal cushion in the contest
Ten Hag will doubtless not wish to dwell on this. This has been a viewed as a season of progression since it began with those two horrific defeats to Brighton and Brentford and it will probably suit the Dutchman for it continue to be seen that way. It keeps the expectation at more manageable levels.
But the truth is United now look like a team capable of running hot and with Rashford playing the kind of football he never has before then Ten Hag will know what we all know, namely that something quite remarkable is not out of the question.
The beauty of this United team is they don’t have to play well to win and that makes them dangerous. Here, they were made to look ordinary by Brendan Rodgers’ team for the first quarter. Leicester cut through the United defence regularly and had it not been for two David de Gea saves then the team from the midlands would have lead.
MATCH RATINGS
MANCHESTER UNITED: (4-2-3-1) De Gea 8; Dalot 6, Lindelof 6, Martinez 7, Shaw 7.5 (Wan Bissaka 68mins 6); Sabitzer 7 (Mainoo 79mins 6), Fred 6.5 (McTominay 57mins 6); Fernandes 7.5, Wehgorst 7, Garnacho 6 (Sancho 45mins 7); Rashford 8.5 (Elanga 68mins 6)
GOALS: Rashford 25, 56 Sancho 61
MANAGER: ERIK TEN HAG: 7
LEICESTER CITY: (4-4-1-1) Ward 5.5; Castagne 6, Soutter 6.5, Faes 6, Kristiansen 6.5; Tete 6 (Praet 74mins 6), Dewsbury-Hall 6.5 (Tielemans 58mins 6), Mendy 6 (Soumare 58mins 6), Barnes 7; Maddison 6.5; Iheanacho 6 (Vardy 75mins 6)
BOOKED: Faes, Mendy
MANAGER: BRENDAN RODGERS: 6
But United’s recovery was steady and once Rashford strode through to score from virtually his team’s first attack in the 25th minute this was never a result in doubt.
There is a sureness about Rashford’s finishing at the moment that other centre forwards will recognise as the hallmarks of a footballer who feels he is always going to score. These periods come and go but when they do come around they are something to behold.
He scored again during a period at the start of the second half that they dominated. Then, soon after, substitute Jadon Sancho scored one too.
For Leicester and Rodgers it was a strange afternoon. So impressive and dangerous for a while and then, subsequently, so tame and vulnerable. Maybe it sums up their season.
De Gea frustrated Leicester early on. The Spaniard is 32 but his instincts are sharp. Harvey Barnes should have scored when clear in the ninth minute but De Gea’s right hand, stretched out low and firm, denied him. Superb. Harry Soutter headed the resulting corner over and then, a little later, Kelechi Iheanacho headed down and up at the far post and De Gea clawed the ball from the line like a cat pawing at a cotton reel.
Leicester were good at this point, creating angles and width and overlaps. United were passive. But when Wout Faes gave the ball away in the 25th minute, Bruno Fernandes played Rashford away and he scored low across Danny Ward.
Would De Gea have saved that? Maybe? Do Leicester have a player capable of finishing so crisply? Probably but Jamie Vardy is 36 now and was on the bench.
That goal didn’t end the contest but it shaped it. Leicester were not the same team thereafter, United were emboldened and more dangerous.
Diogo Dalot should have scored number two before half-time but missed from six yards then Lisandro Martinez hit the bar with a header early in the second half and Rashford was for once denied when clear.
He did not err just before the hour. Released by Fred down the left, he cut in to score and though an offside flag was raised the VAR replays showed Faes to be playing him on. The Belgian is a talented defender but this was not his afternoon. He was, for example, fouled badly by United’s Marcel Sabitzer in the first half but the Austrian was not punished.
Rashford opened the scoring against the run of play for the hosts, driving the ball low and hard across the Leicester goal
His second of the afternoon was only confirmed following a VAR check, and widely celebrated by the Man United fans
Sancho came off the bench to strike home a third for Manchester United just after the hour mark against the Foxes
Midway through the half and United were treading water a little. They couldn’t get enough possession to build anything while Leicester were able to manoeuvre the ball round and through them much too easily.
The thing about this United team, though, is that they are clinical in a way that has proved beyond previous versions going all the way back to Sir Ferguson’s latter years. It helps when you have a forward playing with as much confidence as Rashford is. Here, when the otherwise excellent Wout Faes misplaced a pass from his own 18-yard-box Leicester were immediately in trouble. Marcel Sabitzer read the play well and seized on the error to feed Bruno Fernandes on the right. And when he played Rashford in, the United forward ignored a man waiting for a pass to his left and drove the ball low and hard across Danny Ward and in with his right foot.
Leicester had made the art of scoring a goal look quite difficult. This was proof that it need not be that way.
Now that that they had the lead, United were better, much better. They no longer allowed themselves to be stretched in quite the same way by an opponent who only really fashioned one more chance in the half, Tete and Maddison combining right to left to present Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with an opening that he lifted towards the far post and wide.
United, meanwhile, spurned the opportunity to turn a good half in to an even better one. Wout Weghorst, playing in a deeper position behind Rashford, stole the ball to start a United move and when Diogo Dalot advanced to take a return pass from Fernandes only six yards from goal it seemed he must score. Somehow the full-back – unaccustomed to being so far upfield – got his feet mixed up and prodded a weak shot wide.
Ten Hag must have noted the holes in his team’s performance as he made a change for the second half. Alejandro Garnacho was replaced by Jadon Sancho. This involved a positional reshuffle, too, as Weghorst was pushed up front with Rashford moving to the left.
It was from this position that Rashford scored his second goal four minutes before the hour. United had already threatened twice, Lisandro Martinez heading a free-kick on to the bar and then Rashford being denied by Ward when clear.
Erik ten Hag made five changes from the Man United side that drew 2-2 in Barcelona in the Europa League on Thursday night
Brendan Rodgers saw his Leicester side squander early chances at Old Trafford before going behind against the run of play
Defender Harry Souttar had one of the better chances for the Foxes, hitting the bar with an early chance for the visitors
Sancho, on as a substitute, scored his team’s third goal in the 61st minute after Leicester coughed up the ball again and it was moved through Martinez, Rashford, Sancho, Fernandes and then back in to the goal scorer.
This felt like a romp for an hour when for a while it had been awkward. But that is United right now. Confidence is threatening to take them to highs not witnessed since Sir Alex Ferguson’s last title triumph ten years ago.
Can United win it? Ask this question. If Ferguson was still lord of that dressing room, what would he be saying to his players now?
source: dailymail.co.uk
