Manchester United 3-0 Sunderland: Five Talking Points
Manchester United moved to the top of the Premier table thanks to a comfortable home win over bottom-placed Sunderland. The result leaves the visitors without a win from their opening seven games and heaps further pressure on manager Dick Advocaat.Memphis Depay opened the scoring with a tap-in on the stroke of half-time to change the complexion of the team talk at the interval. Things got even worse for the Black Cats as Wayne Rooney doubled the home side’s lead 40 seconds after the break, ending his longest barren spell in the league. Juan Mata then calmly converted Ashley Young’s cross right at the end to ensure the club’ biggest win of the season so far.Here are the major talking points from the game:
#1 Can United stay at the top?
Manchester City’s collapse at the hands of Tottenham meant that United went into the game knowing that a win will get them to the top of the table. While the football in the first half wasn’t as fluid as it has been at Old Trafford for the past two decades, this is a very different United side. A side whose foundations are solid, especially in central defence and thrives on domination of the ball and being clinical when presented with chances.
The chants of "United, United, top of the league," from the home fans haven’t been heard for a long time at Old Trafford. But if United maintain their solid foundation and can keep their forwards fit, they will have a chance of staying at the top. But that is a very big “if”. For now at least, Van Gaal and his players must merely continue their good form and keep racking up the points, for this is a league that is not easily won.