Southampton 0 - 1 United

Lukaku scores yet again. Photo: Eurosport.com

Tough game that. Our players' celebrations at the end of the game shows what an important win it was. There's a gif doing the rounds on Twitter of Lukaku celebrating the win, have a look at it! 

United were better than Southampton during the first half but lost the midfield after the break. The Saints were head and shoulders better than United during the second half as our players barely had a sniff of the ball. Having said that, we still had two chances during the second half to kill the game but Lukaku had his shot saved and Herrera's effort, incredibly, was off target from an ideal position. This made for some very uncomfortable final minutes but we managed to get out of this game with three points. We drew against Southampton last season at their stadium, that's another 2 point improvement from last season. 

The goal we scored was excellently worked by our players. A lot of passes and then Young put in a delightful cross that was finished by Lukaku. Young is probably the best crosser we've got in our squad. I've sung the praises of our forward players a few times this season but today it was all about our defenders. Jones, especially, was brilliant. My man of the match. 

During the second half Lukaku was too isolated up front. I don't feel Mkhitaryan and Mata were supporting him enough. Fellaini and Matic did well defensively but did very little offensively. These four players simply lost the midfield. 

All in all I am very happy with our boys. They worked very hard to win the points today. It was a very Mourinho performance; score a goal and defend it. Not saying that it's the style of football I like but hey, it's effective. Speaking of Mou, I thought he did very well tactically when he saw that Southampton had a grip on the game. He crowded our box with 3 central defenders. A team that has failed to score in 9 of their last 10 home games was never going to score against a 5-man defence with Matic and Fellaini in front of it. 

A great defensive performance but a tad disappointing up front. We can't score 4 every week BUT I expect a few goals against Crystal Palace next Saturday. Meanwhile, United have got a very tough game in Moscow in the Champions League. I think this will be a good game to see what our players are made of. Come on United! 

P.S. Well done to the Red Army. The noise of 3,000 of them drowned Southampton's supporters. Excellent.