United thrashes Rooney’s Everton with late flurry
Wayne Rooney suffered a miserable return to Old Trafford as his old club Manchester United thrashed Everton 4-0 with a flurry of late goals to go joint top of the Premier League on Sunday.
Rooney, who went back to his boyhood club in July after 13 years with United in which time he scored a club-record 253 goals, wasted two good chances to cancel out Antonio Valencia’s stunning early strike for the host side.
He was substituted late on and then watched United add three more goals through Henrikh Mkhitaryan, former Everton striker Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial.
A rather flattering victory lifted United level at the top with Manchester City. Both sides have 13 points from five games and have scored and conceded the same amount of goals.
Everton, which had dominated much of the second half despite having little recovery time from Thursday’s Europa League defeat to Atalanta, dropped into the bottom three with four points.
“I think the performance was very good, especially in the first 30 to 35 minutes,” said United manager Jose Mourinho.
“It was probably our best performance of the season.
“There was a moment were I felt we did not kill it so we have to make it solid with Ander Herrera. The second goal went in, then game over.”
Everton manager Ronald Koeman said his side’s third heavy defeat in eight days was undeserved.
“Sometimes in football you get more than you deserve but today we deserved more than we got,” he said. “What I saw today of my team made me happy.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal produced a vastly-improved away performance to have the better of a 0-0 draw with Premiership champion Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
After defeat at Stoke City and a thrashing at Liverpool, Arsene Wenger’s side showed far more steel and hit the post through Aaron Ramsey as well as having Shkodran Mustafi’s headed goal disallowed as the Gunners had the better of the chances.
Tempers frayed near the end with Chelsea’s David Luiz shown a red card for a wild tackle on Sead Kolasinac – the Blues’ third red card of the season from only five league games.
Arsenal’s draw snapped a five-match losing streak away to Chelsea in the league and left it in 12th place with seven points. Chelsea is third with 10 points.
“It was about mentality and a response from our last away game. We could have won it. It was an intense game,” Wenger said. “The battle was total.
“We were focused and determined. We tried to play when we had the ball and we were close to winning the game. With a bit more freedom we would have won the game.”
Wenger’s side was savaged by former players and pundits after the 4-0 loss at Liverpool last month, but showed far greater steel on Sunday and a point was the least it deserved.
The Gunners have still not scored away in the league this season, but came close on several occasions against Antonio Conte’s side which, after a lively start, was clearly second best.
“We have great respect for officials, but it is strange to finish a third game in a row against Arsenal with 10 men,” Conte said. “You need to see what happened before the tackle.” (Reuters)