It’s the festive period, which means fixture congestion and with that, lots of news. So let’s dive right in and take a look at what news trending in the wake of the United’s 1-0 home win over Bournemouth yesterday, and heading into the road clash at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
Calls for less Romelu Lukaku and more Zlatan Ibrahimovic are based on the Belgian’s performance lately, which has come under heavy fire.
The narrative says that Lukaku has been in a scoring slump, and that ended yesterday as he provided United’s only goal in the 25′ of the win yesterday.
That’s one way to look at it. Another way is to consider the fact that Lukaku continues to be the same guy he’s usually been- scores a lot against mid and lower table teams, while also being absent against the top six. We saw this on display this week. He was missing in action against table topping Manchester City on Sunday, but scored versus a 14th place team last night.
According to the Cherries Manager, Eddie Howe, Lukaku should been sent off yesterday. Lukaku escaped booking for a late challenge on Nathan Ake early on and then received a yellow card for catching Harry Arter from behind in the 43rd minute.
Howe thinks the striker earned a red that was obviously not called:
“I thought the first tackle was a yellow card. He was very late on Nathan. Then he picked up a clear yellow. He should have been off the pitch.”
Manchester United supporters rejoiced yesterday as wonder-kid Angel Gomes signed his first professional contract with the club, after also being linked to Barcelona & Borussia Dortmund in the past couple of months.
This past May, Gomes the youngest player to feature for United in the Premier League era, and the youngest to see the pitch since Duncan Edwards, way back in 1983. He simply wowed ’em at the England U17s this year, where he captained the winning side.
You can go to this link to see his skills compilation video
Also, check out his Dribbling Session at age 14 video
United were far from their best yesterday, but they achieved three points nonetheless. Central defender Phil Jones was pleased by how his team has recovered and responded from a very disappointing outcome– a tense loss to bitter rivals Manchester City, in a match that as hyped as any you’ll ever see.
“It was always going to be difficult off the back of the derby defeat,’ the United defender said. “so disappointed in many ways because of the magnitude of the game and we wanted to do more.”
“We wanted to win the game and unfortunately it wasn’t to be, so it was important that we came out, showed a bit of fight and a bit of courage, players getting on the ball and trying to do something.”
“It wasn’t pretty at times. We had to dig deep and grind it out, but the most important thing was to get three points and get back on track.”
“I’d just like to say to thank you to the fans as well because I think it was difficult for them on Sunday in the derby defeat.They stuck by us again. When times are hard, they’re singing, they’re chanting for us and we’ll need that going on in the season.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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