SWANSEA CITY 1, MANCHESTER UNITED 3
- Jose Mourinho serves a one-match touchline ban as Manchester United win their first Premier League game since September
- Mourinho makes six changes from the Fenerbahce defeat
- Wayne Rooney with three assists; Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic punish lax Swansea
- Mike van der Hoorn with second half consolation goal for Swansea
Jose Mourinho watched from the stands as he served out a one match touchline ban while watching Manchester United beat Swansea City 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium.
It was a comfortable win notable for the return to form of Wayne Rooney, who assisted all three goals, with some great finishing by Paul Pogba and a double strike by Zlatan Ibrahimovic – with the big Swede netting his first Premier League strikes since the Manchester derby in September.
Jose Mourinho confirmed that Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw had ruled themselves out of the game at Swansea after recent injuries and continued his recent tactic of publicly criticising certain players, perhaps in an attempt to get a performance out of his squad.
Mourinho spoke about players who were “brave” and able to play through pain. United were already missing Antonio Valencia and Eric Bailly and had to put out another makeshift defence.
He also praised the overall contribution of Ibrahimovic despite not having scored a goal since late September in a Europa League game at home against against Zorya.
Mourinho said: “I knew that Ibra would score goals. It was just a question of time. He is a striker who will do everything for the team even if he’s not scoring goals.
He added: “We were really impressive in our control of the game. We controlled the game by having a lot of the ball and hurting the opponent when we could.”
Wayne Rooney retained his place in the team while Paul Pogba was deemed fit enough to start but Jose Mourinho axed six players from the team that lost in Turkey against Fenerbahce.
Phil Jones, Ashley Young, Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Juan Mata and Zlatan Ibrahimovic started the game at the expense of Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Morgan Schneiderlin, Anthony Martial, and Marcus Rashford.
Jones had only just returned to training following injury while Young was brought in to play at full-back and both players were praised by their manager for their attitude.
After a spell out of the side, Rooney fired wide in the opening moments in an indication that United meant business and that the Reds captain, in particular, was itching to show his stuff.
And he had a willing partner in Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the Reds capitalised on a very lax Swansea performance to win three vital points.
Rooney’s cutback was half cleared and fell kindly for Pogba to strike low and hard past Lucasz Fabianski after 15 minutes.
Matteo Darmian’s cross was sent just wide by Fellaini before Rooney squared the ball for Ibrahimovic to score his first Premier League goal since the derby defeat against Manchester City from 20 yards out after 22 minutes.
Rooney was once again the provider as he set up Ibrahimovic’s second with a simple through pass with the Swede sidestepping Angel Rangel’s attempt to challenge him before firing past Fabianski.
So poor were Swansea that their first shot on goal was in the second half but Mike van der Hoorn’s 69th minute header from a Gylfi Sigurdsson free kick beat David De Gea in the second half despite a suspicion of offside.
Mo Barrow could have reduced the deficit further after scuffing an attempt to volley a lofted cross by Jefferson Montero when a better connection might have asked more questions of De Gea but Swansea’s performance didn’t merit any points on the day.