Manchester United won their second consecutive Premier League match at Old Trafford, beating Everton 2-1 on Sunday afternoon after goals through Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial, while Gylfi Sigurdsson’s precise penalty was only enough for Toffees to halve the lead and nothing more than that.
It was a good performance overall from a team that desperately needed to win. The Devils had just one win in previous seven matches and this victory at least made them jump from tenth to eighth in the league. That will not suffice anyone just yet, but it is a start. Everton did not manage to pose a bigger threat, though they were helped by Chris Smalling offering them a penalty.
Anthony Martial Masterclass
However, there were more positives from this match than we were used to recently. Anthony Martial won the man of the match award and he truly deserved it. It was a beautiful display from the Frenchman amidst the stories of him rejecting the first offer for a contract renewal. It looked like he was not bothered by any of the off the pitch stories.
Martial scored a lovely goal from the edge of the box that doubled Man United’s lead, but he was also the one that earned the penalty which Pogba initially did not score, before his compatriot tapped it in after Jordan Pickford’s initial save. Martial was dazzling, playing with panache, adding four key passes to his lovely performance and now Alexis Sanchez will only face a tougher competition for the starting spot. Martial seems to be securing his spot in starting XI for the future matches.
Luke Shaw Continues Justifying New Contract
Whenever a Man United player is about to get a new contract, there is a lot of talk about whether the player has deserved it – unless it is David De Gea. But Luke Shaw did deserve his contract renewal and ever since he had put his signature on the paper, the left-back has been superb for Man United.
That was the case once again. He was the second most involved player of all that took part tonight. He was reliable and never really troubled defensively. He had six tackles in this match – no one had more than him – and he was successful in five of them. Shaw also made three blocks and his defensive actions in general did a lot of good for Man United, while also being important further up the pitch.
Richarlison Showing Progress As Centre-Forward
It was a surprise to see in the recent months that Marco Silva is preparing Richarlison to become a striker. The Brazilian played under his current manager at Watford, but now at Everton he has a completely new role. And Richarlison seems to like it. He was the one that earned the penalty from which Sigurdsson scored, but was also quite good in usual areas of his game. He had just two shots – neither of which came from great chances – but he was also dribbling past players, tackling and intercepting balls, helping in defensive part of the game. It was not the most eye-catching performance, but rather one that will satisfy his manager.
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