Manchester United finally back to their swashbuckling best as Jose Mourinho rouses Old Trafford from its slumber
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For a moment, it looked like Jose Mourinho would not be able to resist.
Hook Juan Mata, send on Marouane Fellaini, tell Marcus Rashford his sparkling, trick-stuffed shift was about to end but tell him to walk to the far touchline before being hauled off. Waste a bit of time, the old chestnut.
Two-nil up, still a little while to go, can’t be too safe.
For a moment, it looked like Jose Mourinho would not be able to resist just the tiniest bit of shop-shutting.
If he did try, even in the slightest, he never had a chance.
Everyone was having far too much fun.
This was a Manchester United team playing with the swagger, the panache and the arrogance of old.
This was a Manchester United team enjoying putting a cowed opponent to the sword.
This was a Manchester United team relishing the awakening of a stadium that has slumbered through recent years.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
As Anthony Martial, a fair replacement for the irrepressible Rashford, sauntered on to a Henrikh Mkhitarayan pass and clipped a simple finish past the simply-beaten Joe Hart, Old Trafford was a vibrant, noisy, colourful throwback.
A throwback to when winning was not just common, winning with a flourish was common.
And the crowning encore after that third from Martial was the fourth from Paul Pogba, whose edge-of-the-area strike was struck sweetly enough to beat a keeper who probably could not wait to get out of the place.
Joyous and Jose are hardly soul-mates but there was a glee about the Pogba-strike celebrations that suggested he has a collection of players who have been waiting to be unshackled.
(Image: Getty)
There is, of course, a caveat and this caveat normally plays in claret and blue.
United swashbuckled, West Ham buckled.
Slaven Bilic cannot have found a single positive in this performance. Slow, sloppy, slack.
That was just Pablo Zabaleta but his hapless contribution was emblematic of his team’s resistance.
It was Zabaleta’s embarrassing halting of Rashford that led to the set-piece that provided Romelu Lukaku with his second.
The less said about exactly what Arthur Masuaku was playing at when Mkhitaryan curled over an eminently defendable free-kick, the better.
(Image: REUTERS)
He might have been still giggling as Lukaku laughingly nodded it in.
Of the outstanding individual contributions here, Lukaku’s was maybe the most difficult to evaluate even though his first goal, an emphatic upright-assisted finish from Rashord’s gorgeous pass, clearly sent a rush of confidence through his team.
The suggestion that Lukaku is some sort of flat-track bully has shallow foundation but he certainly shows no mercy on the less accomplished.
And as tracks go, they don’t come much flatter than West Ham for Lukaku. That is 11 against them and he has not long turned 24.
If Lukaku pummels teams outside the Big Six that is no bad thing.
(Image: AFP)
He will have far sterner tests, as will United, but one man you will know will be up to most challenges is Nemanja Matic.
Mourinho must have thought it was some sort of wind-up when he was told Chelsea would actually sell Matic to their old, estranged, embittered boss and his title rivals.
On the elite European stage, Matic might not enjoy supremacy but he has long had this Premier League lark well and truly sussed.
Looking to cap a dominant display, he even had the odd pop at Hart himself but then why wouldn’t he join in the fun?
For a moment, his manager might not have approved but even he must have been thrilled by one of the most exciting United performances post-Fergie.
Mourinho has re-opened the United shop and, you suspect, it won’t be shutting soon.