Manchester United produced a much-needed response at Old Trafford, beating newly-promoted Sunderland 2-0 to record a third successive home victory. The hosts were composed after the restart, denying Sunderland any realistic route back into the match and easing into the international break with three points.<\/p>\n
After another disastrous performance and result at Brentford, the pressure on Ruben Amorim and his players was acute. United rose to the occasion, overpowering Sunderland from the first kick and dominating the first half. The scoreline reflected that superiority by the half-hour mark, with Mount and \u0160e\u0161ko providing a comfortable two-goal cushion. If not for goalkeeper Robin Roefs, United could have been three or four to the good.<\/p>\n
The second half required less adventure in the final third. United played with necessary caution as they pursued a first clean sheet of the season, producing a competent defensive display that limited Sunderland to half-chances at best. It was the exact result Amorim needed heading into the international period.<\/p>\n
\u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s first United goal stood out as the only positive from the humiliation at the Gtech Community Stadium. The \u00a374 million striker\u2019s finish was scrappy after two earlier efforts had been blocked, but it provided a timely confidence boost following criticism of his early outings in England. Having benefitted from last weekend\u2019s strike, \u0160e\u0161ko led the line impressively at Old Trafford, converting United\u2019s second from close range after Casemiro\u2019s long throw and linking with Mount and Bryan Mbeumo.<\/p>\n
Work out of possession was also notable. \u0160e\u0161ko made nine defensive contributions and recorded more tackles than any other United player, offering relentless pressure that gave Sunderland\u2019s defenders little time to build play. It was not a flashy display, but it was highly effective.<\/p>\n
Amorim\u2019s selection of debutant Senne Lammens in goal replaced the under-fire Altay Bay\u0131nd\u0131r. The new Belgian stopper produced a competent and assured outing: several clean saves, an impressive stop from Granit Xhaka\u2019s stinging first-half effort, a high claim of a lofted ball late in the first half and a timely denial of Wilson Isidor on the hour. The 23-year-old also opted to kick long rather than play short from goal kicks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u0160e\u0161ko earns confidence-boosting goal as United claim 2-0 win and first clean sheet of season. Ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,969,689],"tags":[317,260,939],"class_list":["post-3548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","category-sunderland","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-bryan-mbeumo","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}