ROMELU LUKAKU INTRODUCED himself to Old Trafford in triumphant fashion with two goals as Manchester United crushed West Ham United 4-0 in an impressive Premier League opener.
The Belgium striker, a £75 million ($97.6 million, 82.5 million euros) signing from Everton, struck either side of half-time to take his tally of goals against West Ham to 11 in his last 11 appearances.
Substitute Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba added late goals that gave a true reflection of United’s dominance and sent Jose Mourinho’s side to the top of the early-season standings on goal difference.
United join Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur on maximum points and while West Ham offered scant resistance, the early signs suggest Mourinho’s men will not end the season 24 points off the pace again.
While Lukaku took the headlines, Nemanja Matic also enjoyed an assured home debut following his £40 million switch from Chelsea and there were strong showings from Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford as well.
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic, who gave league debuts to Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez, will hope for better when his side visit Southampton next weekend.
Having opened his account in Tuesday’s UEFA Super Cup loss to Real Madrid in Macedonia, Lukaku now has three goals in two United games.
He might have been able to celebrate his first league goal even sooner.
Mkhitaryan’s pass freed Juan Mata and when the Spaniard’s shot was blocked by West Ham goalkeeper Hart, he squared the ball to Lukaku, but the 24-year-old could not get a shot away.
Mata’s darting runs into the box were bringing United joy and he almost broke the deadlock when he raced onto Pogba’s clever dinked pass and slipped a shot past Hart, only for Angelo Ogbonna to hack clear.
United’s pressure told in the 33rd minute thanks to a move started and finished by home debutants.
Matic had already seduced the home fans with his awareness and coolness on the ball and he sprang a United counter-attack by racing out to block an attempted pass by Pedro Obiang.
Picking up the loose ball, Rashford tore into the West Ham half and slid a pass into the box for Lukaku, whose first-time shot clanged off the left-hand post and nestled in the side-netting on the other side of the goal.
While United old boy Hernandez endured a thankless first half on his return to Old Trafford, Andre Ayew threatened an equaliser in stoppage time with a rasping drive that David de Gea had to parry.
Lukaku picked up where he had left off in the second half, first releasing Rashford to run through and shoot wide and then doubling his tally in the 52nd minute.
Former Manchester City stalwart Zabaleta’s foul on Rashford gave United a free-kick on the left and from Mkhitaryan’s cross, Lukaku stole between Winston Reid and Arthur Masuaku to plant a header past Hart.
Arnautovic served a reminder of West Ham’s threat with a header that De Gea was obliged to tip over, but it seemed only to redouble the home side’s determination to stretch their lead.
After Rashford had left the right-hand upright shuddering with a curler from the left-hand apex of the area, Mkhitaryan released Martial to coolly tuck away United’s third before Pogba swept in the fourth from 20 yards.
© – AFP 2017
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Spot on.
I share the undercooked concern. Choose close to full team, rest anyone with a niggle or still jaded from last weeks heat. Warm ups are over, time to build momentum.
Murray; first of all, I have really enjoyed the podcasts so far from France, so thank you for that.
My amateur opinion is that they should go full strength and treat the SA game like a final. Even if it’s a narrow loss, they’ll know that they’re close to the standard required to win the competition. If they win, then the belief will become huge. You have to bear in mind that Ireland have had some less good performances last Autumn and in the 6N, but they’re kept winning and so surely they have that winning mindset. This is pretty rare and the winning run is worth fighting for.
One question for you would be about training. I’d be happy if they were having a few savage full contact sessions, as these may be tougher than a match against a tier 2 nation, but the squad size is restricted so this may not be possible. Would this be another argument for going full strength against Tonga? I’d really like to see the line out attack come back and to deny Tonga from scoring a try.
Maybe the answer to this in 4 years is to line up top opposition in friendlies leading into the world cup. I get they need to get the A team up to 100% preperation firing for the SA game but at the expense of picking up injuries again the minnows before then is a risky plan…
@Stuart: You are probably right… but I think the IRFU found it difficult to line up a game against other tier 1 nations. The England game was probably lined up from 4 years ago. Maybe they left it too late to arrange the others and it wouldn’t be extraordinary to think that they were disorganised or complacent.
@Stuart: apparently other top tier nations turned down playing against Ireland in the summer internationals. Not sure if they left it too late or if other teams felt it would show their hand too much.
In all likelihood yourself and the others on media duties are aware of the team (as normal) but cannot spell it out BUT you’re trying to slowly row your way back from the, way off, potential team you posted a few days ago…. Nice try. It’ll be about 12 from first 15 and Big Joe may be on his way to being first 15 with anyone carrying minor niggle sitting it out. Murray knew a few weeks ago Big Joe would get his shot
Are we not finding excuses to talk ourselves into the very same situation that killed us in previous world cups – ie no trust in the wider squad and thereby overloading the core group? What you are saying, Murray, is that should Ireland win the WC, they would play basically the same team for 6 matches in a row (with only minor alterations from the remaining 7th game). That’s a tough message to the squad and it does not fit the McCloskey inclusion.
@John Morris: nah, I dont think so. We played a weakened team vs Japan 4 yrs ago and look what happened. Plus we play our best team in 6 nations each game for most part with slight adjustments for Italy. Look at what southern hemisphere do – play their strongest team pretty much for rugby championship and some warm ups. And they win every world cup except 1. I think Murray’s article is very well put together and I would agree full strength is required. Its not equal game time for all, go games style. These are fully grown men playing professional sport so get on with it. They;; be called upon if injury strikes. Thats the idea of a squad of grown men
Gonna be an interesting call, they can probably win with a 2nd string side but agree we should put out close to our strongest . Only player I would definitely look to leave out from the 23 is Porter and keep him fresh for SA. We can bring in the likes of Baird , Henderson, Henshaw , McCloskey and Byrne (sub) and steam roll Tonga
@Owen ODonoghue: Spot on about Porter. He is the one player we cannot afford to lose to injury. Playing against SA without him would be scary.
@Owen ODonoghue: Getting hard to see Byrne in the mix, no doubt he’ll be thereabouts for this game tho.
We’re at risk of Eddie O’Sullivan 2007 territory here by playing the same team every weekend. Given the likely hard slog against Scotland and every weekend thereafter they need to rotate this weekend