United 4 - 0 QPR

DDG

Rafael(Valencia) Evans Blackett Rojo

Mata(Falcao) Herrera Blind Di Maria(Januzaj)

Rooney RVP

Well, that was refreshing! It was an absolute joy to watch United play today. Our passing was terrific and we could have easily scored two more goals. It was also a pleasure to finally see a player who truly deserves to wear our iconic number 7 shirt. 

Our best players today

I think it's been well over a year since we've last seen United play that well. We had some decent performances last season but they cannot be compared to what we saw today. Our players looked like scoring every time they attacked QPR. I know, QPR already got hammered by Tottenham and are a team that looks destined to be occupying the bottom end of the Premier League table. However, we made similar teams look like world beaters last year and lost quite a few points against mediocre sides. To see United put QPR to the sword was a very good sight.

The quality injected by new boys Di Maria and Blind was very evident today. Blind's debut was obviously overshadowed by Di Maria's excellent performance but our new Dutch signing was everything that we have been yearning for. He protected our back four superbly and was the player who launched most of our attacks. We got a few expensive players this transfer window but Blind's acquisition is likely to be quite a bargain if he performs like that every week. Di Maria, everybody's man of the match, showed that 60 million quid can get you a player who could make a difference. He scored one and assisted Mata for our fourth goal. If I'm not mistaken, he also had a say in the other goals. He was unlucky not to record another assist as a beautifully lifted ball to van Persie saw the latter hit it straight at the keeper. If there was a worrying sight today, it most definitely is van Persie's apparent lack of sharpness.

Two other good performers were Herrera and Mata. The former was very neat in possession and tackled well whenever he had to. He also took his goal superbly. We've been missing goalscoring midfielders so it's always nice to see a United central midfielder put his name on the scoresheet. Mata put in an 8 out of 10 display. Apart from his fine one touch passing he also scored his 9th goal in 11 games for United. Yeah, every expert was right; there's definitely no place for Mata in our team. HA! 

Rooney took his goal well and looked good in possession. He looks like he enjoyed captaining that side today! Who wouldn't? 

We did look a tad shaky on two instances at the back. In the first half, De Gea was so bored that he decided to get out of the box and try and take a ball that should have been dealt with by Rojo. Thankfully, Evans was there to save our Spaniard's blushes and cleared Austin's effort that was heading to the back of the net. Late in the second half Blackett, who looked composed throughout, was not aware of Vargas' presence behind him and let QPR's player through in on goal. These are mistakes that would have definitely been capitalized on by better quality players. 

Our fullbacks looked comfortable in their position. Rojo will have more difficult days down the left side. He was barely tested by QPR. On the right, I thought Rafael had a really good game. It was also very good to see a back four formation return to United. I was never convinced about us playing with three at the back.

To be able to bring on Falcao, Januzaj and Valencia at 4-0 is definitely something that shows that we've got some depth in our squad. That was definitely the strongest 18 man squad we've had for quite some time. We've also got some injured players who will soon return. 

A lot of ABUs (read Anyone But United) still hoping for our demise will now start clutching to straws and argue that it was only QPR we were facing today. That is true. But another team much loved by the English media was defeated by Aston Villa this weekend while the mighty Man City couldn't win against Stoke a fortnight ago at the Etihad. Ultimately, you can only beat what's put in front of you. I'm just glad we defeated QPR and beat them with so much confidence. Rome wasn't built in a day but I hope today we laid the foundations to something special. Bring on Leicester!