PAUL POGBA is back – and so are Manchester United.
Pogba returned from nearly two months out with a damaged hamstring, to score one and make another, as United got back to their impressive early season form.
Just for good measure Romelu Lukaku ended his own goal drought with an emphatic finish for the fourth.
Oh, and to really make it a memorable night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic got back into action, with the final 13 minutes of a game which turned into a stroll.
It had threatened to be anything but when Dwight Gayle had drilled the Toon ahead on 14 minutes.
Jacob Murphy fed the overlapping DeAndre Yedlin down the right, and when his low pull back had Victor Lindelof sliding to the floor as he tried to put the brakes on, Gayle swept it in off the far post. United were again caught napping when Jonjo Shelvey hit a pass on the spin that Kevin De Bruyne would have been proud of, but this time Murphy’s skidding low strike was just wide of the upright.
United – with Pogba at the heart of most of their possession – may have seen a lot more of the ball but were hardly peppering the Toon goal with shots.
Lukaku had stabbed one wide at the near post, then couldn’t get over a Lindelof cross – but then eight minutes before the break they did finally level it.
Pogba, not surprisingly, was at the heart of it, tying Isaac Hayden in knots before standing one up for Antony Martial to nod down and into the corner. That was as good as it got for the Toon, for ten minutes after the break it was all but game over, Lukaku floating one to the far post, Marcus Rashford nodding back, and Pogba scoring from a yard.
Pogba was making his way to the tunnel after being subbed, when Lukaku bulldozed his way into the box to blast the fourth – before Ibrahimovic made his bow for the final few minutes.
From The Sun
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