Man United fans vote Mkhitaryan MOTM vs. Leicester

A largely drab first period – in which the visitors’ Marcus Rashford saw a low effort superbly tipped away by goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and home skipper Wes Morgan had a risky header blocked – had seemed set to fizzle out into a goalless half-time scoreline.

However, they lost 1-0 to Huddersfield, a result that would not have been disastrous had any of Grimsby, Portsmouth, Birmingham or Stoke lost – but they all won. Just three minutes later after the 2nd half started, Mata scored the 3rd goals of the match and through this, the match was nearly confirmed by the Red Devils.

Manchester United head coach Jose Mourinho says he was “protecting” Henrikh Mkhitaryan by not playing him at the start of Manchester United’s Premier League campaign.

His double took his tally to three goals and two assists in four league and cup games since arriving at City from Brazilian side Palmeiras last month.

“Look, my team is playing very well”.

Last year Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri said 40 points was the goal to save the team from relegation.

When reminded that they are sixth right now, the midfielder interjected: “Still sixth”.

Jose Mourinho’s men, on the other hand, came with a convincing 3-0 win at Leicester City last weekend, but they will be hoping to revenge their 3-1 defeat in the reverse fixture at Watford back in September.

However, for a player with such wonderful potential, it appears inconceivable that Mourinho and United will not step up their efforts to get more out of Martial.

Mourinho acknowledged the first goal had been crucial as it boosted his team’s belief and shattered Leicester’s already fragile morale. “That is the story of the game”, he said. “We have missed a couple of games by not winning them”. The visitors, after a slow start – for the first 20 minutes, managed to score the opening goal out of virtually nowhere when the Armenian picked the ball up in the halfway line and ran the remaining length of the pitch to score past Kasper Schmeichel and give Mourinho’s side the lead.

Mourinho was not scheduled to be in the company of Herrera, Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David de Gea at a United sponsorship launch on Wednesday but appeared on the sidelines at an event in which Herrera said it was “difficult” to identify United’s toughest opponent of 2016/17, yet conceded it had to be Chelsea.

But Pogba being deployed in a deeper position meant that he was rarely able to link-up well with Ibrahimovic. Hull City sits at 18th just one point behind Leicester.

However, there was very little to criticise the Frenchman about in the first-half as he played his defensive role well and also proved that he is able to play a deeper role when necessary.