Manchester United 3-1 Leicester : Five Talking Points

Goals from Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao and an own goal from Wes Morgan were enough to lift Manchester United into third place. Although Marcin Wasilewski scored with 10 minutes to go, the visitors were unable to make further inroads as they stay rooted to the bottom of the league table. After a slow start, United took the lead as Van Persie capitalised on a through ball from his compatriot Daley Blind and scored with a brilliant right-footed volley. Angel Di Maria’s strike five minutes later was parried by Mark Schwarzer and Falcao capitalised on the opportunity to make it 2-0. And just before half-time Morgan put one through his own net from a Wayne Rooney corner to cap off a poor half by the visitors.Here are the major talking points from the game.

#1 United\'s diamond sparkles

A lot has been made about Van Gaal's insistence on playing three at the back. But for all the criticism that he gets, the Dutchman has shown that he is flexible and plays a formation which he thinks will win them the game.

Against Leicester at home, United were always going to have a lot of the ball and so needed more attackers to open the visitors’ defence. So his decision to play a diamond in midfield with Di Maria at the tip, was always going to mean goals and that is exactly how it turned out.

With Di Maria running from deep and creating chances and Rooney and Januzaj as the two in front of Blind, the Red Devils looked threatening going forward; but as Van Gaal predicted, were caught out a few times at the back showing that for all of its glitter, the diamond has a few drawbacks after all.