United thrash Everton with late goals

ROMELU Lukaku showed little room for sentiment yesterday scoring one and creating another as Manchester United ran out ultimately comfortable 4-0 winners over his former club Everton to ruin Wayne Rooney’s Old Trafford return.

Right-back Antonio Valencia gave United an early lead with a spectacular half-volley before late goals from midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan – set up by Lukaku just before he got on the scoresheet himself – and an Anthony Martial penalty sealed the win.

With United’s rivals Manchester City having clinched a dominant 6-0 victory over Watford 24 hours earlier there was an expectation from United fans for Jose Mourinho’s side to keep pace with the Premier League leaders.

They are now only behind them in the table by virtue of C coming before U in the alphabet as they have identical records – Everton by contrast are in a crisis as they lost for the fourth successive match without scoring and are in the bottom three.

The Red Devils, without the injured Paul Pogba, were not as fluent and free-flowing as they have been in the early part of the season and three goals in the final seven minutes flattered them a little.

Rooney, United’s all-time leading goalscorer, was afforded a generous reception by the United fans and carried Everton’s main goal threat before he left to a standing ovation from the home supporters after being substituted with eight minutes left. — AFP