Manchester United Brushes Aside West Ham to Secure Easy Opening Day Victory
Manchester United opened their 2017/2018 Premier League campaign with a comprehensive 4-0 win over West Ham.
The Red Devils dominated the game from start to finish and were fully deserving of their victory over the Hammers. A brace from their new £90m striker Romelu Lukaku, coupled with goals from substitute Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba, topped off the perfect day for Jose Mourinho's side as the quest to return to the summit of the English game began.
Slaven Bilic had clearly set up his side to be compact and frustrate the home side, but Mourinho's men were in a rampant mood as they laid siege to the West Ham goal. New boy Joe Hart had plenty to do, and it was Henrik Mkhitaryan who had the first chance of the game as he seized on Arthur Masuaku's poor defensive header and blazed his shot over the bar.
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Another fellow new signing Nemanja Matic impressed at the Theatre of Dreams, with his shielding of the Utd backline allowing Pogba more freedom and the first goal nearly came after a sublime weighted through ball from the Frenchmen found Juan Mata whose attempted cross to Lukaku was hacked away by Angelo Ogbonna as the Belgian was set to poke home.
West Ham grew into the game and opened up, however the deadlock was broken in the 33rd minute when Matic blocked Pedro Obiang's attempted cross-field pass to Marcus Rashford, whose pace was too much for the West Ham backline, playing through Lukaku who made no mistake smashing the ball past Hart of the post.
Chicharito who was returning to Old Trafford was martially superbly by the likes of Eric Bailly and Phil Jones throughout, Edmilson Fernandes had the Hammers first opportunity when Andre Ayew fed skipper Mark Noble who teed up the Swiss International whose effort stung the palms of David de Gea.
Mourinho's side showed no mercy in the second half as they continued to pepper Hart in the West Ham goal and it was 2-0 seven minutes after half time when a Mkhitaryan free kick was met by Lukaku who made no mistake heading into the bottom corner.
Despite going further behind Bilic's side had their best spell of the game the Fernandes' floated cross found Marko Arnautovic whose header clipped the top of the bar before going over. The Austrian then delivered a perfect corner to the unmarked Diafra Sakho, who couldn't connect with the Austrian's cross properly.
Rashford then rattled the woodwork when he cut inside past Pablo Zabaleta before unleashing a rocket off the inside of the post before going out for a goal kick. Utd looked stylish and comfortable throughout and wrapped the game up in style with two quick goals.
Mkhitaryan claimed his second assist of the game feeding Martial who made no mistake when slotting beyond the despairing dive of Hart, before Pogba got in on the act when he fired into the back of the net after being put through by Martial.
An impressive performance from Jose Mourinho's side who continue their season next Saturday with a trip to Wales against Swansea, looking to make it two wins out of two. Whilst West Ham travel to Southampton looking to make amends.
