Now this is the Manchester United way. You can’t just win, you have to win with style and panache. There must be exciting, swashbuckling attacking football. The fans at Old Trafford finally saw their team dominate all the meaningful numbers on the stat sheet for once.
United ended their run of games in which they dominated possession, chances, and shots, but ended up with only a draw. Wednesday night, they finally did all that and dominated the scoreboard too, beating West Ham United 4-1.
Behind very superlative efforts from Anthony Martial, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, United eliminated the Hammers from the EFL Cup in the Quarter-Final round.
United Manager Jose Mourinho said: “I wanted to play the kind of football people want because it’s the Manchester United tradition so I’m really happy with that.
“I never had a team with so much possession, I never had a team with so much creation, I never had a team with so many chances — but I never had a team with so many draws. I want this beautiful team to win more matches.”
United will now take on Hull City in the semi-finals. It’s shaping up to be a United-Liverpool match-up in the EFL Cup Final.
Mkhitaryan vowed that he would fight for his place, and indeed he has. The result? a second start in just four days for the Armenian which saw Mkhitaryan named Man of the Match, as he achieved two assists in just over a half.
Jose Mourinho, who served his one game match ban tonight, was very pleased with how his side came together, got it done and got it done in exciting, aesthetically pleasing fashion.
He told on Sky Sports: “The performance is something we are used to. We are playing very well at home. Today was more of the same.
“After the West Ham goal [making the score 1-1 in the 35th minute], we had 10 minutes where we felt it deeply. [It was] West Ham’s first shot — they equalise. But, in the second half, we got the confidence to play and win comfortable and play beautiful, attacking football, which is something that the fans like.”
“I told them at half-time, it is not possible to play so well and, because of a goal, stop to play so well. I told them ‘forget about the undeserved goal, we are playing so well, we have to keep the confidence’ and let’s go on with it. Goals plus performance means the real happiness.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.