Swansea 0 Man Utd 4: Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba combine to puts Swans to the sword

Swansea City 0 - 4 Manchester United
English Premier League19/08/2017 12:30
Referee: Jonathan Moss|Venue: Liberty Stadium|Attendance: 20,862
Eric Bailly 45'
Romelu Lukaku 80'
Paul Pogba 82'
Anthony Martial 84'

The painful reality for Swansea City is that with ten minutes left on the clock, they were still in this game and then Jose Mourinho’s team went in for the kill in a way that Manchester United sides once did as a matter of course once they detected weakness.

It was, all told, a ransacking led by the big players in three raids: Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba scoring in a four-minute blitz of Swansea’s retreating defence. Possession was turned over, knock-downs were won and even when the game was decided and Swansea had all but offered their surrender, so United came back for more. By the end Anthony Martial, an effective substitute, had swept in the fourth and the afternoon felt very different.

Not since 1907 have United begun a season scoring four goals in their first two games and while they have faced West Ham and Swansea, clubs who seem to have emerged from the summer without a clear idea of the kind of teams that they want to be, it does at least seem that Mourinho’s players know. Pogba was the game’s standout player, surviving a challenge on Martin Olsson that might well have been a yellow card had Jon Moss not given him one earlier for a foul on Tom Carroll.

Pogba looms over the every aspect of the game, the kind of player whose considerable presence must appear in the peripheral vision of just about every opponent when in possession of the ball. He seemed to be there at every critical moment of the game, winning a corner late in the first half, winning the subsequent header that led to Eric Bailly’s first goal, and then in the second half, the Frenchman led the way again.

Pogba’s form is a continuation of that devastating performance he turned in for France against England in Paris at the end of last season, a combination of the physicality and the delicate touch that he showed in scoring United’s third of the afternoon. Between them, Pogba and Lukaku now have five goals in two games and it is Pogba whose personality seems to be key to this team – when he is confident and diligent, then so are United.

Mourinho did not feel that the decision of referee Moss, an official with whom he has history, to award the first yellow card was justified, let alone the second that never came. Paul Clement could not bring himself to claim a missed dismissal either and he has more pressing concerns on his mind.