And here’s your match report. Bye!

So United trim the gap at the top of the table to just the 12 points. Over the next month Stoke play Huddersfield (h), Watford (h), Bournemouth (a) and Brighton (h), four theoretically winnable games that will define the remainder of their season in a way this one never would.

90+3 mins: Pogba ends an excellent performance by curling high and wide from the free kick, and that’s it!

90+2 mins: McTominay is fouled by Martins Indi just outside the area, and United will have one more shot before the final whistle.

90+1 mins: There will be about two minutes of further torture for Stoke.

View image in fullscreen

90 mins: United have a corner and don’t take it short. Instead, Rashford crosses to the defender at the near post. Still, Stoke clear straight back to a red shirt, Rashford is picked out again, and he dances into the box and sends a low shot straight at Butland.

87 mins: Er, five of United’s last six league games before tonight (but before that, not in the Premier League this season and only once last season, but a few times in the Champions League and assorted cups).

86 mins: An amazing chance for Stoke! The ball’s lifted into the area, Smalling totally misjudges it and Diouf’s chest control opens up half an area’s worth of space. He blasts in a shot that De Gea saves, and then slams the rebound wide with Ireland unmarked at the far post!

84 mins: Another excellent Pogba pass finds Valencia, whose low cross is backheel-flicked goalwards by Rashford. Butland saves.

83 mins: That will be Mata’s final contribution to the evening’s entertainment, with Scott McTominay replacing him.

81 mins: His team are 3-0 up with the game in their pocket, but when Mata is found on the right in an excellent crossing position and succeeds only in picking out a defender, he screams at himself in rage, frustration and wild self-loathing.

80 mins: United make their first substitutions, bringing off Lingard and Martial and bringing on Fellaini and Rashford.

79 mins: Pogba crosses from the right, and Mata magics an over-the-shoulder flick that takes it towards Lukaku. It hits the post, but the flag is up.

76 mins: United hog the ball for a couple of minutes, and then Martial inexplicably gives it away under no pressure. This has become humiliatingly uncompetitive, the very opposite of yesterday’s derring-do at Anfield.

75 mins: It’s raining so hard you can hardly hear the commentators.

74 mins: This half has been kind of like the first, except without Stoke having any chances or doing at all well at anything.

Finally United stick a chance away! Lingard runs 60 yards and passes to Martial, who pings it at pace into Lukaku’s chest inside the area. It drops at his feet, and he shifts it onto his left foot and slams it inside the near post!

View image in fullscreen

70 mins: A final Stoke change: Peter Crouch is off, and Mame Biram Diouf is on.

69 mins: And a few minutes ago I completely failed to mention United having a goal disallowed: Lukaku’s low shot was well saved, and Lingard’s follow-up was flicked in by Mata, two yards out and five yards offside.

68 mins: And another booking, this time for Ireland, for cynically clipping Mata’s ankles.

67 mins: Jones brings the ball out from defence, shimmies past a few Stoke midfielders in unlikely style and passes to Lukaku, who goes down under a fairly humdrum challenge from Martins Indi, bounces up and squares up to the Stoke defender aggressively. Lukaku is booked.

65 mins: And again! Shaw goes down the left, and then goes further down the left, and his low cross was going to be pretty rubbish but it flicks off Zouma’s calf and spins to Lingard, who touches to Mata, who blasts a snap-shot high!

63 mins: Lingard trips Fletcher, and is booked.

62 mins: And the home side come close again! Lingard forces Zouma into losing the ball – not the first time the defender has lumbered upfield only to give possession away – Lukaku takes it and passes infield to Lingard, who goes right to Mata, whose shot flies back across goal and just wide of the far post.

View image in fullscreen

60 mins: Stoke take off Choupo-Moting, and bring on Ramadan Sobhi.

59 mins: Not sure how United failed to score here. Pogba crosses low from the left; Martial controls it, somehow bounces between Wimmer and Martins Indi, and then sidefoots a low shot from eight yards that goes straight to Butland.

58 mins: Ireland tackles Martial in the area but the ball breaks to Mata, whose cross is overhit but the ball breaks to Pogba, whose shot hits a defender but goes behind for a corner. It’s played short, and nothing comes of it. I don’t know what’s up with United and these short corners.

55 mins: “Paul Lambert’s barmy army!” sing the away fans.

View image in fullscreen

55 mins: He then span and blasted a decent left-footed shot at goal, to be fair. Butland saved.

54 mins: Pogba chips a pass to Lukaku, who controls on his chest and attempts to flick it over his shoulder and back to Pogba, but instead hits himself in the face.

52 mins: Pogba now has nine assists for the season, taking him level with Leroy Sane and Kevin de Bruyne at the top of the assists table. Impressive, particularly given that he’s missed seven league games through injury and three through suspension. This is his 13th league game; De Bruyne has played 23.

49 mins: Pogba plays the ball through to Martial, but Butland races from his line to reach it first. Just.

View image in fullscreen

48 mins: Shaqiri and Shaw fight for the ball on United’s left flank. United win the throw-in, Shaqiri is shouldered into the advertising hoardings, and he bashes them in rage.

46 mins: They’re back under way, and Stoke have brought Kevin Wimmer on for the second half, taking off Josh Tymon.

Last summer, Antonio Valencia was asked what his aims for the forthcoming season were:

There is always something to improve on and, this season, I will try to be better with my left foot. I will shoot more, try to do more with it and I hope, this year, I can achieve this. Overall, I just wish to be better and, God willing, things will go the right way for me and for the team.

Today we tasted the fruit of his labour. And it tasted good.

45+2 mins: And that’s it, for now. It hasn’t been entirely one-sided. Stoke have had a couple of very decent chances. But they didn’t take them, United scored a couple of absolute beauties, and the game seems all wrapped up and ready for them to apply a bow and a little mini gift-card-on-golden-string thing in the second half.

45+2 mins: Shaqiri controls brilliantly, cuts past the onrushing Jones, and sends a stinging low shot towards the corner. De Gea makes a difficult save look easy.

View image in fullscreen

45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be a minute or so.

45 mins: Martial has another shot from outside the area, but this one goes over. Again this followed work from Lukaku on the right wing, where he’s been hanging out rather a lot.

42 mins: Mata’s fine pass finds Martial, who controls, shimmies, twists and prods a pass to Lukaku, running into the area. Any kind of half-decent control would have left him with a simple finish, but he couldn’t quite bring it under his spell.

40 mins: United have scored two absolute beauties. “Going down!” sing their fans at the visitors.

Lukaku is on the right again. This time he passes infield to Pogba, who passes further infield to Martial, who curls a brilliant right-foot shot into the top corner from 22 yards!

View image in fullscreen

37 mins: Another lovely long pass to a full-back, this time Shaqiri’s to Bauer, but the Stoke man is so far from any of his team-mates that his low cross just looks a little silly. “People here in Ecuador are freaking out that Antonio Valencia scored with his left foot,” reports Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo from Quito. “Have you ever seen him use his left foot? it’s almost as glorious as when the world discovered that Zoolander was indeed an ambi-turner.”

36 mins: Pogba strikes a ludicrous 50-yard pass downfield and into the path of Shaw, who catches it just before it rolls out of play and pulls back to Martial, whose shot deflects wide. United take the corner short, and nothing comes of it. Again.