Bournemouth 1 - 3 United

DDG

Valencia Bailly Blind Shaw

Herrera Fellaini

Mata(Mhiki) Rooney(Schneiderlin) Martial(Memphis)

Ibrahimovic

Our three scorers

Ahh that felt good. Not the most impressive of performances by any stretch of the imagination but it was a professional, solid, display against a potential banana skin. Granted, Bournemouth are an ordinary team but they were also an ordinary team last year and we dropped three points at their stadium. Every win should be celebrated in this league because every team can cause an upset. 

The starting line-up was quite surprising. The obvious lack of speed at the front was a worry. Mhiki not starting the game was puzzling and it's a shame Lingard is injured. He would've been flying after last weekend's amazing goal. 

What a picture!

The first half was drab and we just got lucky before the break. Bournemouth's full-back seemed to be very eager to see Mata on the scoresheet; he gave the ball to our Spaniard twice in the action leading to the goal. The second half was much better though. There were times when we played some eye-pleasing football. Rooney had two great chances to open his goal account for this season but Boruc saved on both occasions. Our captain got lucky though as Martial's miss-hit shot, after some excellent work by Valencia, ended on his head. Roo was barely 2m away from goal; definitely wasn't going to miss from there. If our first two goals had an element of luck to them, then our third definitely didn't. It was a goal that required skill, precision and confidence; qualities that the goal scorer, Ibrahimovic, has in abundance. Ibra barely saw the ball during the first half but he had more joy during the second. I can recall three Zlatan moments that had class written all over them; his goal, hit nutmeg on a rushing Bournemouth defender and his brilliant flick to set-up Rooney (who missed). Excellent work. 

I thought our defenders did very well. Valencia, Blind and Bailly were excellent. Shaw will have better days. Herrera worked hard and Fellaini was my man of the match. It's amazing how some of our fickle fans call for his head when he misplaces a pass but decide to overlook good performances like today's. There must be a reason why Moyes, LVG, Wilmots and now Mourinho believed in the guy. Not world-class, definitely not, but he is a very useful squad member. Were Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea world class? Nope. But they did quite well at United as squad players.

Rooney did OK. Not great but he got his name on the scoresheet and that'll be a big confidence booster. He's still not 100% fit (well, he doesn't look it) so I expect him to improve in the coming games. Martial showed a few glimpses of why he was such a big success last season but he's still not at his best. I was surprised to see Mata start but he had a very good game after a slow start to the game. There seems to be a future at United for our beloved Juan. 

Good start to the season. Been a while since we've seen United score 3 goals away from home in the Premier League. Under LVG we had only done so four times! Lost 5-3 to Leicester, won 3-2 vs Southampton, won 3-0 vs Everton and drew 3-3 vs Newcastle. Let's hope we'll keep seeing goals scored this season. A win is a win regardless of the score but I've grown sick of 1-0's. Southampton next. We'll probably get to see Pogba's much-awaited second United debut. Come on United!