Man Utd 2 – 0 Leicester
Goal Scorers: Rashford, Fellaini
United Team: De Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Jones, Blind, Mata, Matic, Pogba, Martial, Mkyitaryan, Lukaku
Subs who appeared: Fellaini, Rashford, Lingard
Leicester City Team: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Maguire, Fuchs, Mahrez, Ndidi, James, Albrighton, Okazaki, Vardy
Subs who appeared: King, Gray, Slimani
There was an attendance of 75,021 at Old Trafford, to witness a very good performance from the league leaders who ran out as 2-0 winners. Goals from substitutes Rashford & Fellaini gave United the win, who finish up the month with 9 points, 10 goals scored and 0 conceded.
First half saw United dominate, however the final pass was not quite there. Paul Pogba was very influential with his range of passing and shots from distance, but none really troubling Kasper Schmeichel. Juan Mata had the ball in the back of the Leicester net but was disallowed for offside after Lukaku’s shot was saved and pushed back out to the centre of the penalty area. Anthony Martial started the game due to his recent performances coming off the bench but didn’t really threaten.
Second half continued in the same vein as the first, with United with full dominance and were awarded a penalty seven minutes into the half, Lukaku stepped up and missed as Schmeichel made a fantastic save. The penalty should have been potentially retaken as the keeper was 2 yards off his line before the ball was kicked. Mourinho sent for reinforcements in Rashford and Fellaini who both came on to score. Leicester switched off from a corner and ball found its way to Rashford centre of the box to finish. However, the keeper should have done better in my opinion. United had their tails up, and Lingard who came on as the final sub, drove into the box and took a shot while being defended against Chris Morgan which deflected off Fellaini and went in. The linesman this time didn’t award offside as he was marginally offside. Chris Foy stated afterwards on BT Sport that Chris Morgan intentionally played the ball that’s why Fellaini wasn’t offside. With all due respect to Mr. Foy, I think he got confused on live TV and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Morgan didn’t intentionally play the ball; his body position was in a blocked shot position as any good defender would do.
Jose Mourinho described the team’s performance as solid, and I would agree. I think Lukaku needs to do a lot of work to make the step up to United, he performed well in the first two games and he’s not going to play well all the time, but his movement and shot accuracy was poor yesterday. A positive note from Leicester’s perspective was how they defended in their two banks of four, and Mahrez was fantastic. United’s next game is away to Stoke on 9th Sept!