Premiership: Lukaku Fires Brace in Man Utd’s 4-0 Demolition of West Ham

 Romelu Lukaku began to justify his huge price tag with a competitive debut double that helped Manchester United to a superb victory over West Ham yesterday.

The Belgian joined United for £75million this summer as Jose Mourinho swooped in to beat his old club Chelsea to sign the striker.

Lukaku failed to prove himself on the big stage during his time under the Special One at Stamford Bridge but already looks settled at Old Trafford.

He lit up the Theatre of Dreams with a dazzling display as United turned on the style to open their Premier League campaign with a win thanks to Lukaku’s brace and late Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba goals.

Mourinho, who was dressed for business on the touchline,  threw fellow summer signing Nemanja Matic straight into the mix and the Serbian produced a magnificent performance.

United were held to far too many draws at home last season and lacked a cutting edge despite the talismanic Zlatan Ibramhimovic leading the line.

The attacking threat was very much back here as Lukaku, along with the excellent Marcus Rashford, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan caused all sorts of problems.

Two of that impressive three-pronged forward line combined to break deadlock after the half-hour mark.

Matic won the ball in midfield and released Rashford. The boy wonder showed good awareness to slot in Lukaku and the No. 9 applied a tidy finish.

Lukaku grabbed a second after the restart as Mkhitaryan swung in a free-kick and the former Everton man got up well to glance a header past Joe Hart.

Rashford thought he’d put United three ahead when he turned inside his marker and thundered an effort in from range, only to see it crash off the post.

West Ham new boy Marko Arnautovic then clipped the top of the bar with a rare chance for the visitors in a warning to Mourinho’s men.

However, the result was never truly in doubt and Lukaku should perhaps even have claimed a hat-trick on an eye-catching first day at his new office.

Instead, it was substitute Martial and Pogba, unleashed by the defensive shield of Matic, who completed the job a few minutes from time to put the gloss on the scoreline.

United are back in action next weekend when they travel to Paul Clement’s Swansea City while West Ham travel to Southampton.

Earlier in the day, Tottenham made a winning 2-0 start to the new season as a moment of madness from Jonjo Shelvey spoiled Newcastle United’s Premier League homecoming.

The Magpies were holding their own against Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs until captain Shevley was shown a straight red card for stamping on Dele Alli.

It was a moment of sheer stupidity from the skipper that left his team with an uphill task at St. James’ Park in front of a packed house on Tyneside.

Shelvey’s dismissal came just minutes into the second half after Rafa Benitez’s team had shut out the north Londoners in a closely-fought first period.

Alli dusted himself off after the incident and made further his mark on the hour mark by finishing smartly past Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliot.

Tottenham have never lost a Premier League match when Alli has scored and there was little chance of that record being broken here.

Ten minutes later and it really was game over.