West Brom 0-2 Manchester United: Highlights and recap

Manchester United beat West Brom 2-0 at the Hawthorns Saturday. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Manchester United, at last, are starting to regain some confidence. Jose Mourinho’s side are still six points off the top four, but are now nine matches unbeaten in all competitions, and have won consecutive Premier League games for the first time since winning their first three matches of the season.

The Red Devils have been unfortunate at times since then, dropping points against Burnley, Stoke and West Ham despite mostly dominant performances. But there have been signs in the past two matches — a home win against Tottenham and an away win against Crystal Palace — that United are rediscovering their winning touch.

Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are starting to show their best form, while the team has thrived with Michael Carrick in the starting XI. Henrikh Mkhytarian, who looked so promising alongside against Tottenham and who has played a big role in United’s recent run, is sidelined with an injury.

West Brom have had an excellent season so far, and sit in seventh place after 16 matches. They’ve also emerged in the past month or so as a genuine attacking threat. The Baggies have scored 23 goals this season — seventh most in the league. That’s a major turnaround for a side that scored the second fewest of any side over 38 games last season.

In their last match, West Brom ran out comfortable 3-1 winners at Swansea thanks to a Salomon Rondon hat-trick, their fourth win in six matches. They’ll welcome Craig Dawson back from suspension against United, who should see an injury boost of their own in defense with the return of Chris Smalling.

Recap

West Brom started the match excellently, pegging United back in the opening exchanges. But Mourinho’s side opened the scoring with their first attack after five minutes. Jesse Lingard, played into space down the right wing, crossed perfectly to the head of Ibrahimovic, who finished comfortably. United took over the game from there, though they didn’t create many good chances. Wayne Rooney had a powerful shot tipped onto the bar by Ben Foster, while Lingard blazed over when through on goal late in the half.

The second half followed a similar pattern. United dominated the ball but rarely looked like scoring. The Red Devils doubled their lead almost out of nothing, as Ibrahimovic beat his man and drilled a low shot into the bottom corner, via a significant deflection of Craig Dawson. Their was a flash point between Salomon Rondon and Marcos Rojo, as Rondon appeared to slap the United center-back, but both players were shown only yellow cards.

Highlights

Next: Premier League Power Rankings

The win moves United level on points with Tottenham, who play Burnley tomorrow, in fifth place. They’re also now only three points off the top four, though that gap could extend by a point tomorrow depending on the result of Manchester City’s match against Arsenal.

West Brom remain seventh after the loss, but could fall as low as ninth depending on other results this weekend.