That’s it. Manchester United continue their intimidating start to the season with another win and another clean sheet. They had to work hard against an admirable Leicester defence before the substitutes Marcus Rashford and Marouane Fellaini settled the match. Thanks for your company, night!
90+3 min De Gea makes a terrific late save from King, who diverted Gray’s low cross towards goal from barely five yards. De Gea spread himself to divert it wide with a stiff right leg.
Lingard made a great run behind the defence, came back inside Morgan and hit a shot that was kneed into the net by Fellaini. I don’t know how much Fellaini knew about it. I do knew he looked fractionally offside, so Leicester might have been hard done by there. It’s been a good day for Jose Mourinho though: two of his substitutes scored, and the other made the second goal.
80 min United are ten minutes away from a third consecutive clean sheet. They were solid even before Matic, so you can’t imagine that will be a problem area for them this season. It’s a much better defence on the pitch than on paper, which reflects well on Mourinho.
77 min “Afternoon Rob,” says Adam Roberts. “Yes, it was a harsh penalty; yes, it was poor effort from Lukaku. But why have referees completely stopped judging the goalkeepers’ adherence to the rules on penalties? It was as if Schmeichel was charging down a conversion in rugby.”
74 min Mkhitaryan comes off to be replaced by Marouane Fellaini. He makes an immediate impact with a strong header forward to Lukaku, who runs at the last man Morgan before smashing the ball over the bar from 20 yards.
It’s another assist for Mkhitaryan, an outswinging corner that was missed by everyone at the near post. Rashford, left alone 10 yards out by Ndidi, swung his right foot instinctively and the ball kicked off the pitch before going through the diving Schmeichel.
69 min “As wonderful a story as Leicester’s title win was, it was ruined for me by Robert Huth,” chirps Matt Dolny. “Comfortably my least favourite footballer. I have an irrational level of dislike for him. Even when he’s not playing, his very association with the club makes me want them to lose. Except, they’re playing United. Who I also want to lose. Yet another frustrating Saturday night, bound to end in disappointment. It’s like I’m 19 again.”
68 min United have been quite flat since missing the penalty, with Leicester posing a greater threat on the counter-attack. Craig Shakespeare might be a future England manager, you know.
66 min The little genius Mahrez is really straight to threaten. He sends Blind off to another postcode with a lovely dragback before rifling the ball right across the face of goal.
65 min We haven’t seen Harry Maguire marauding forward today. What we have seen, as Owen Hargreaves points out on BT Sport, is that he is a bloody good defender.
64 min What a chance for Leicester! Gray broke forward, with Mahrez in a wonderful position to his right, but his through pass was late and overhit. Mahrez still managed to manufacture a shot, which was blocked by Jones, but with a better pass he’d have had a one-on-one.
62 min Leicester have had a very narrow defence, happy for United to cross towards Morgan and Maguire. So far it has worked very well. Maguire in particular has had a fine game.
61 min “Rob!” says Iloti Mutoka. “FM 2017 has it at Matic as DM/MC and Herrera as a M/AMC. Incidentally, it says Utd are 11th because I haven’t started the season yet and that Herrera’s morale is good, to Matic’s Very Good. Maybe Mourinho is is looking at that, too.”
59 min Mahrez dances beautifully past Jones and into the box, only for the ball to hit his standing foot as he shapes to shoot. It dribbles wide, but without that unwitting touch he’d have had a great chance.
56 min Simpson is really struggling to deal with Martial, who wins another corner. It’s cleared and Leicester break dangerously. Eventually Mahrez slithers away from Jones and rattles an early shot from a tight angle that is kicked away by De Gea.
It was a poor penalty from Lukaku, hit with pace but telegraphed and nowhere near the corner. Schmeichel dived to his right to push it away. Leicester will feel that justice has been done. There were maybe five yards between Martial and Simpson, but Simpson did not move his hand towards the ball.
50 min Leicester are defending so deep. Lukaku rolls Maguire on the line of the box and goes over after a bit of contact. Maguire put hands on him but I’m not sure there was enough for a penalty.
“Re Herrera v Matic: different players,” says Paul Ewart. “Herrera may have more quality but Matic is a specialist. Simple as that isn’t it?”
Yep! In Football Manager terms, Matic is a DMC, Herrera is an MC. I assume they still define players like that, anyway. I haven’t actually played it since the Tonton Zola Moukoko years.
Peep peep! Attack and defence, invasion and repulsion ... the last 30 minutes of that half were like a training session. Yet for all United’s dominance and bright football, not to mention the series of heatseekers that came off Paul Pogba’s right foot, Kasper Schmeichel didn’t have that much to do. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
45 min Pogba is bumped over in the D by Okazaki, but Michael Oliver plays on. Seconds earlier, Lukaku took down Valencia’s cross in the area - possibly with his arm - before being crowded out.
41 min Blind’s flat cross is headed well wide by Lukaku, who was under pressure from Maguire. That came from another excellent crossfield reacher from Pogba.
36 min “You have to feel for Herrera a little, being out of the side despite being the outstanding player last year,” says David Wall. “Do you really think that Matic does that much that he couldn’t do? Would you agree with people who say that that signing was the moment United crossed the Rubicon to become real title challengers?”
Arf. Yes, Matic is much better in that particular position. Herrera will get plenty of games alongside Matic though, particularly the big ones.
35 min Pogba has a bit of room 30 yards out and belts an excellent low shot just wide of the left post. Schmeichel, who I think was unsighted, wouldn’t have got to it.