Paul Pogba, back for Manchester United, should be making the Red Devils more athletic and penetrating.
But Brighton almost got a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford.
Pogba’s pal mate Lukaku has been rubbish since the news broke of his police fine for noisy parties at a rented house in Los Angeles. Nothing new there. Years ago we used to hear about Kanu & Dwight Yorke whooping it up in LA.
Playing Rashford and Martial behind Lukaku didn’t work at all for Mourinho.
And having Zlatan replace Mata, rather than the off-form Belgian, didn’t break the deadlock.
Ashley Young is a useful left back because he’s so nimble skipping backwards against dribbling attackers near the box or inside it. Young won the game in 66 when smashed in a left-foot shot that hit defender Lewis Dunk and looped wickedly into the net.
The Special One was gracious enough to admit how well Brighton had played: “This game is probably the hardest match we’ve had this season.”
Huddersfield v Man City turned out to be another very close battle.
After a very tight first 45, Huddersfield scored from an inswinging right wing corner by Tom Ince. The ball was flick-headed by former 1860 Munich captain Christopher Schindler and it hit Otamendi and went in.
So an own-goal in the 45th minute now threatened City’s 100% away record
Three minutes into the second half the ref punished a risky grab by Scott Malone on Raheem and Aguero made it 1-1 from the spot. But Aguero had a very poor game, I thought.
A Sane free-kick smacked the crossbar and rebounded so high that it landed beyond the D.
Then Pep made a highly radical substitution, bringing on striker Gabriel Jesus for his centreback and captain Vincent Kompany and the league leaders grabbed a very late winner when a Jesus shot rebounded off the keeper onto Raheem’s body and went in for 1-2 in the 84th minute.
A compelling game won by a fine Citeh team who still have a 100% away record.
But lots of the things City love to do were not working as well as usual because Huddersfield had nullified them. Their manager David Wagner can teach teams how to defend, as Brian Clough and George Graham used to do, so Wagner is a welcome addition to our managerial talent-base.
Pep Guardiola has improved Raheem Sterling hugely. In particular, Raheem’s off-the-ball movement has improved hugely and he is now 250% of the player he was when the new manager arrived from his gap year in New York.
Pep, a great player who played with world class players, is turning Raheem into a reliable goalscorer.
Those quick thrusts into high areas on the right side are simple but unstoppable and City will continue to attack those spaces in every game
VERDICT: Citeh are best team in Manchester.
But they’ll have to prove that at Old Trafford on Sunday, December 10th.
PS. Arsenal play Huddersfield on Wednesday night.