Manchester United’s win over Sheffield United was a complete team performance.
As always there were a few standout individual displays, and we have tried to pick out our top three.
Here is a look at our pick of the team’s most influential players in the victory…
Anthony Martial
The easy pick. Anthony Martial set the tone for the win by scoring as early as the sixth minute.
He became the first United player in seven years to score a hat-trick, following Robin van Persie in 2013 against Aston Villa. Breaking this record was long overdue.
By time the first half was over he had made more touches than he did in 77 minutes against Tottenham, and scored two goals.
He has seven goals in his last seven starts for United and is now up to 19 goals for the season. That’s impressive considering he missed two months with injury.
He should have had an assist too, had Marcus Rashford not missed an open goal in the first half.
Bruno Fernandes
These days you can almost just slot Bruno Fernandes’ name into the column before kickoff.
He stands out a mile with his quality on the ball orchestrating the whole attack. Not all of his passes and flicks come off, but when they do, they split defences apart.
Marcus Rashford may have got the assist for United’s third goal, but it was all down to Fernandes creating the opportunity, setting up his teammate to play through Anthony Martial to complete his hat-trick.
He touched the ball 73 times in 79 minutes, a high number for such an attack minded player. It was a rare day where he did not score, or provide an assist. As it turns out, he didn’t need to.
Nemanja Matic
United are simply a better team when Nemanja Matic is in the side. He was a towering presence in midfield and allowed us to control the game.
He enabled United to dominate possession and it is already clear that the trio of Matic, Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes should be United’s first choice.
United’s dominance was such that Matic did not even need to make a tackle or interception.
Instead he helped United to maintain possession and build attacks, touching the ball 103 times and completed 94 per cent of his passes.
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