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Manchester United

Player Ratings: Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea

Manchester United came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford this afternoon.

Romelu Lukaku equalised in the first half in a good performance after Willian had given the Blues the lead after half hour on a counter-attack.

The Belgian striker then turned provider in the final 20 minutes with an excellent cross to pick out an unmarked Jesse Lingard to nod home our winner.  Despite David de Gea looking shaky today Antonio Conte’s side failed to produce much of a threat after scoring.

Here are how our players fared:

David de Gea 5

The Spaniard was way below his best today.  Willian’s shot went through him for Chelsea’s opener and with the sun in his eyes after half-time he spilled a tame effort that nearly fell to Marcos Alonso, as well as making a meal of a free kick fired at him.

Antonio Valencia 6

Not hugely tested defensively and offered width going forward down the right.  Put in a couple of decent crosses.

Victor Lindelof 6

Made a key interception in the first half but gave William too much space for the goal we conceded.  Chris Smalling also had to bail Victor Lindelof out from gifting Pedro a chance.

Chris Smalling 8

A solid game in defence today as Chris Smalling broke up Chelsea’s possession around our penalty area a number of times.  Apart from their goal on the counter-attack the visitors created very little real threats to David de Gea’s goal.

Ashley Young 6

Willian caused us a few problems down Ashley Young’s flank in another defensive struggle at full-back.  The 32-year-old helped out in attack in bringing the ball forward and trying to get in positions to put crosses in.

Scott McTominay 8

Very poor decision to allow Willian to go one-on-one with David de Gea for the opening goal.  Otherwise, the 21-year-old did an excellent man-marking job on Eden Hazard in Ander Herrera’s absence.

Nemanja Matic 8

Excellent performance in a midfield three – Nemanja Matic constantly broke up opposition possession and was pretty tidy on the ball too.

Paul Pogba 8

A very good performance from Paul Pogba in the centre of midfield today as he had more freedom to venture forward with Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay playing alongside him.  The French star started a number of attacks from midfield although created very chances himself.  Kept the ball ticking and moving forward in midfield.

Anthony Martial 6

Two excellent touches to set up Lukaku’s equaliser.  Anthony Martial switched between playing down the left and right but didn’t make much of an impact before being substituted just after the hour.

Romelu Lukaku 8

The striker proved his doubters wrong today by scoring our equaliser in the first half and produced a spectacular effort that required a full-stretched Thibaut Courtois to tip over the bar.  Missed an opportunity to slide Paul Pogba in midway through the second half before supplying a lovely cross for Lingard to head home our winner.

Alexis Sanchez 6

Quiet game from the Chilean who only really received the ball in a good position once.  Alexis Sanchez played a couple of nice passes in and around the penalty area but was often surrounded by a number of Chelsea players.

Substitutes

Jesse Lingard (28 mins) 7 – Came off the bench to head home the winning goal as the Chelsea defence left Jesse Lingard unmarked.

Eric Bailly (10 mins) N/A – Replaced Alexis Sanchez soon after Chelsea introduced Olivier Giroud to help shut up shop.  This was Eric Bailly’s first Premier League appearance in three months.