Manchester United extended their unbeaten sequence to 12 Premier League games at Old Trafford with a 3-0 victory at home to Leicester City yesterday afternoon.
Marcus Rashford continued his sensational scoring form but Manchester United’s talisman had to rely upon the heroics of his goalkeeper at the other end in a shaky first half for the hosts.
Jadon Sancho came on during the interval, finding the net himself as United ultimately breezed to a comfortable victory, moving three points behind second-placed Manchester City and five off league-leading Arsenal.
Leicester, coming into the match buoyed by eight goals across their last two league outings, spent the opening 25 minutes happily picnicking in the wide-open spaces which emerged amid Manchester United’s purely hypothetical midfield.
Harvey Barnes played a one-two with Kelechi Iheanacho around a muddled set of retreating red shirts but was denied by David de Gea’s outstretched paw. Barely 10 minutes later, the Spaniard outdid himself, clawing Iheanacho’s downward header off the line before the referee’s watch could buzz.
Moments later, Rashford wouldn’t be denied by the considerably less impressive Danny Ward. Harry Souttar tried to play the in-form forward offside but mistimed his lunge out of defence. With time to steady himself, Rashford ripped his 23rd goal of the season into the bottom corner, making this the most prolific campaign of his career.
Clearly unimpressed with a fortuitous first-half performance, Erik ten Hag rejigged his frontline during the break; bringing Sancho into an attacking midfield role which nudged Wout Weghorst to the tip of United’s attack and shifted Rashford onto the left wing.
Proving to be just as deadly from the flank, Rashford streaked clear of Timothy Castagne, latching onto Fred’s through-ball and ruthlessly blasting it past Ward’s holographic attempts at a save. A VAR review revealed that Rashford had just about timed his run correctly, despite the assistant’s initial flag.
Leicester limply folded thereafter, the yawning chasms which plagued United’s first-half cropping up in the visitors’ shape. Sancho merrily skipped between the blue shirts, taking advantage of his central position to exchange a crisp one-two with Fernandes – who remained wide on the right – before sweeping United into a 3-0 lead.
Sancho and the almost comedically wasteful Weghorst squandered numerous chances to extend United’s advantage, but it was Leicester’s first-half profligacy that defined the day
