Manchester United secured their fourth straight win at
home to Stoke City in the first midweek action of the
Premier League season to hang-on to fourth position
on the standings.
Goals from Maroaune Fellaini and Juan Mata ensured
that Louis van Gaal’s men retain confidence ahead of
the weekend’s trip to third-placed Southampton.
Teenager James Wilson started upfront in place of the
injured Wayne Rooney and as expected, Angel Di Maria
joined the United’s skipper on the sidelines, with Ander
Herrera earning his promotion to the stating XI following
his impressive outing over the weekend.
Mark Hughes rang a trio of changes from the side that
lost 1-0 at Liverpool last time, as forward Oussama
Assaidi came in for Jon Walters, while right-back Phil
Bardsley and midfielder Stephen Ireland took Marko
Arnatauvic’s and Steve Sidwell’s places
The last meeting between both sides resulted in Stoke’s
first-ever Premier League win over United and having
earned results against Manchester City and Tottenham
Hotspur already in the present term, the Old Trafford
folks were on their guard right from the onset.
Herrera should have opened scores just after a quarter
of an hour but let fly his shot from inside of the box
after Robin van Persie collected a terrible clearance
from Asmir Begovic to cut a neat pass on to the
Spaniard.
After struggling to get the breakthrough their good start
deserved, Fellaini slotted the hosts in ascendancy on 21
minutes, rising head above others to powerfully thump
Herrera’s cross in at the back post.
Stoke continued to have their fair share of chances and
Bojan was halted from equalising by a superb Marcos
Rojo defending; the Argentine recovering brilliantly to
clear a nearly good pass from in front of the former
Barcelona forward.
The Potters would not relent and leveled through Steven
Nzonzi, 9 minutes after half an hour. Bojan started off
a surging move through the United defence, then
watched the ball hit Chris Smalling’s heels and break to
Nzonzi, who fired in from the edge of the area.
Fellaini forced Begovic to another save- though from a
tame shot- as both sides went into the break
deadlocked on a goal apiece.
United hit the ground running after the break, hanging
high up about the visitors’ end for the winning goal.
That which Mata delivered in the 59th minute, when his
curled free-kick evaded everybody and bounced in at
the back post- though Rojo appeared to claim his head
touched the ball.
David de Gea had been more of a spectator for much of
the proceeding but not in the last ten minutes, with
Hughes’ side opting for more direct attack.
Former United man Mame Biram Diouf almost pulled
off a Stoke leveler, but De Gea made a good reflexive
save to claw out the Senegalese’s back post header.
The Spanish goalkeeper then blocked substitute Marko
Arnautovic’s effort and Ashley Young was on hand to
clear Diouf’s follow up off the line as United clung to
their fourth victory in four matches.
As for Stoke, it was their third straight loss since last
month’s home defeat by Burnley.
Other EPL results on Tuesday
West Brom 1-2 West Ham
Palace 0-1 Villa
Leicester 1-3 Liverpool
Burnley 1-1 Newcastle
Swansea 2-0 QPR
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