Anthony Martial scored Manchester United’s first Premier League hat-trick in seven years as Manchester United beat Sheffield United 3-0 at Old Trafford. Robin van Persie was the last United player to score a treble in the premier league.
The result moved Manchester United to within two points of fourth-placed Chelsea, who will meet Manchester City on Thursday and kept in the race of Champions league.
Both of goals scored in the first half, were close attempts from Frenchman, the first took him a bit nearer to the goal than the second. But on each occasion, Martial found the net with a clinical one-touch finish to convert low crosses from first Rashford and then Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has perghaps sorted out with Manchester United’s attacking options, with the addition of Mason Greenwood and Daniel James in the front. At the same time he dished out Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez to Inter Milan in summer move last year.
As Mourinho pointed out, while being at Sky Sports that Anthony Martial has been entrusted with the central forward role, which he is doing fairly well. He now has 19 for current season – which is his best in five years at Old Trafford. Even thought the figure is less than Lukaku’s 27 goals when Manchester United claimed second spot in Premier league, he is doing better in comparison with Belgian’s last campaign at Old Trafford.
I’m very pleased with Anthony’s development and he knows that we want him to do well and we work with him and the forwards all the time on finishing. Today, he got the rewards for the hard work he’s put in. His pressing goes unnoticed. I think, today, he was exceptional and, at Tottenham, the pressing he showed from the front was really good, so I’m very happy. The first goal was a vital one today and the way he turns and gets himself into a position to score from Marcus’s cross, I was very pleased with that one. Now he’s getting more and more into these positions. He had a great turn against Tottenham, which was a great save by [Hugo] Lloris, so Anthony is in good form.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manager, Manchester United on ANTHONY MARTIAL
Paul is still a bit away from his best form which is natural because that’s his first start since September and he’s been working hard, so hopefully there is more to come. I thought Bruno showed some quality in the game and it’s exciting to be working with talent like this.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Manager, Manchester United on POGBA-BRUNO COMBINATION
Man Utd –
1-de Gea, 29-Wan-Bissaka, 2-Lindelöf, 5-Maguire, 23-Shaw <Booked at 67>, 6-Pogba (Pereira 80′), 31-Matic, 26-Greenwood (Mata 80′), 18-Bruno Fernandes (McTominay 80′), 10-Rashford (James 80′), 9-Martial (Ighalo 80′)
Substitutes
3-Bailly, 8-Mata, 15-Pereira, 17-Fred, 21-James, 22-Romero, 25-Ighalo, 39-McTominay, 53-Williams
Sheff Utd
25-Moore, 6-Basham, 15-Jagielka, 19-Robinson, 2-Baldock, 7-Lundstram, 16-Norwood (Bergeat 45′), 4-Fleck, 3-Stevens, 17-McGoldrickSubstituted forZivkovicat 64’minutes, 22-MoussetSubstituted forMcBurnieat 45’minutes
Substitutes
8-Freeman, 9-McBurnie, 10-Sharp, 18-Freeman, 21-Verrips, 23-Osborn, 26-Rodwell, 30-Zivkovic, 32-Berge
