Manchester United thump Everton 4-0 for Ruben Amorim’s first Premier League win
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Manchester United's Dutch striker Joshua Zirkzee celebrating after scoring their second goal during the 4-0 English Premier League win over Everton at Old Trafford on Dec 1.
PHOTO: AFP
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MANCHESTER – Ruben Amorim won his first English Premier League match at Old Trafford as Manchester United beat Everton 4-0 on Dec 1, with two-goal hero Marcus Rashford saying the new manager’s “great attitude” has spread to the players.
The 27-year-old English forward told Sky Sports: “It is a nice result. It is important with a new coach and a new way of playing, when we are still learning. We have to back up this performance and win in midweek (against Arsenal)...
“The connection is going to build and grow the more we get used to him. He’s come in in a busy period and hopefully the connection keeps building and growing. He’s come in with a great attitude and it’s passed onto the players.”
United started promisingly, but Everton had been in the ascendency with Iliman Ndiaye looking particularly menacing when the Red Devils took the lead against the run of play in the 34th minute.
Bruno Fernandes sent a deceptive corner to just outside the box, where an onrushing Rashford met it with a controlled shot with the instep. As it headed goalwards, it took a big deflection off Jarrad Branthwaite and past Jordan Pickford.
It continued the trend of United taking first-half leads in all three of Amorim’s matches so far, though it came much later than their first- and second-minute goals against Bodo/Glimt (3-2) and Ipswich Town (1-1) respectively.
Seven minutes later, it was 2-0.
Tenacious pressing by Amad Diallo, who was again playing in an unfamiliar wing-back role, saw him dispossess Branthwaite in the final third as Everton tried to play out from the back.
Fernandes collected the ball on the right flank and picked out Joshua Zirkzee inside the box, for his first goal for United since his debut winner off the bench against Fulham in their season opener in August.
Right after the restart, United killed off the game.
They won the ball off Pickford’s punt forward and Zirkzee’s neat reverse pass from the middle of the park found Amad racing away. He advanced forward before slipping the ball to Rashford to finish between Pickford’s legs.
It was his third goal in as many matches of Amorim’s tenure, having struggled for form since the start of last season.
Zirkzee’s second goal in the 64th minute had an identical air to his first. Amad was dispossessed on the flank but he pressed furiously in response, this time harrying Branthwaite’s centre-back partner James Tarkowski out of possession, before picking out the Dutch forward for an easy finish.
Amorim told Sky Sports: “It was not pretty but we were pragmatic... You can feel that we have a long way to go. You can feel that in the first few minutes, where we were OK, but then Everton controlled the game. Then we got the goals in the right moment and that changed the game...
“It isn’t a line of top performances, it is a roller coaster of performances.”
There was some bad news for United, however, with Kobbie Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez both picking up cautions that rule them out of the match against Arsenal.
In the other matches on Dec 1, Chelsea beat Aston Villa 3-0 to extend the Villans’ winless run to eight matches and Tottenham Hotspur drew 1-1 with Fulham in a London derby.
Nicolas Jackson opened the scoring for the Blues at Stamford Bridge with his eighth Premier League goal this season, before Enzo Fernandez added another before the break. Cole Palmer, too, got his eighth league goal of the season with a lovely effort from outside the box in the second half.
At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Brennan Johnson became only the second Premier League player to score at least 10 non-penalty goals this season, after Erling Haaland, when he found the net against Fulham. But Tom Cairney equalised before getting sent off seven minutes from time.
