Manchester United thrashed Newcastle United 4-1 at home yesterday, in a Premier League fixture result that certainly sent a statement. The Red Devils are not ready to concede the title to their intra-city rivals just yet, as they now have their injured stars finally returned.
Let’s take a look at some of the news that’s currently trending in the United Twitterverse and cyberspace as we head towards the UEFA Champions League group clash at FC Basel Wednesday night.
–Zlatan Ibrahimovic saw his first action since April yesterday, and when asked about his amazing recovery, which was carried out within a time table that was much faster than even the most optimistic projections, he gave a very colorful response.
Ibrahimovic also penned a very emotional message to United supporters on his official Instagram account.
Ibrahimovic wrote:
“Thanks to everybody that stood by my side for the last months. Thanks to my family, coach, teammates, Mino, Dario Fort, Dahan, Dr Fu, Dr Volker, Manchester Utd and the most important my fanz.
“This was not a one man work. Without all of you I would not be playing football today so from bottom of my heart Thank you and I love you.”
–Paul Pogba also returned after a multi-month layoff, scored, assisted, and danced yesterday. He is the engine of the team, says Manager Jose Mourinho. Pogba joked that if United don’t win the league this season, he will retire.
“The season is very long, of course,” Pogba told BBC Sport (h/t Football 365) when asked if Man United still had a chance of winning the Premier League this year. “If I don’t believe that, I’d stop playing. If I don’t believe we can still win the league, I better stop. I’ll leave my boots and stop playing football cause I’m a believer we keep fighting.”
-Elsewhere, Jose Mourinho also cracked a joke (winning puts everybody in a good humor mood), blaming his Newcastle counterpart for why his side started so slow yesterday.
“We didn’t start well but I don’t blame my players. I blame – in the positive sense – Benitez,” Mourinho said.
“Very experienced, very intelligent – the team was very well organised. They started very well, creating us problems and we couldn’t play at the same time they were creating those problems in our defensive areas.
“The goal was like a wake-up call and the team reacted very well. The second half was ours. We had control, we had goals, we had beautiful actions.”
-Finally, club legend Ryan Giggs has been endorsed for what would be his first major managerial job– the vacant Wales National Team position.
Current Stoke City and former Wales boss Mark Hughes believes Giggs is the right man for the job.
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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