Swansea City 1 Manchester United 3
Maybe Jose Mourinho should watch from the stand more often. Serving a touchline ban, the Manchester United manager was able to savour the sight of his team registering their first Premier League victory in five matches as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic rediscovering his touch in front of goal on an afternoon when Swansea City capitulated and the simmering frustration among their supporters started to boil over.
Ibrahimovic struck twice - his first goals in the Premier League since September 10th - after Paul Pogba had opened the scoring with an exquisite shot from distance that set the tone for an embarrassingly one-sided first half in which Swansea were comprehensively outplayed.
United were 3-0 up inside 33 minutes and it felt like a trick of the mind that Mourinho’s team had come into this game short of confidence and facing so many questions about their form.
Wayne Rooney, who made his first Premier League start since September 18th, thrived in a role wide on the left, Pogba, Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick dominated the midfield in the opening 45 minutes and, further forward, Ibrahimovic looked like he was enjoying himself again.
Swansea, however, were such obliging opponents, in particular in the first half when Bob Bradley’s side looked totally out of their depth, the shortage of quality every bit as alarming as the lack of effort. It was then that the anger first started to surface as home fans turned on the board.
Mike van der Hoorn pulled a goal back in the second half but by that point United had eased off and there was never going to be any way back for Swansea. They remain second from bottom, above Sunderland only on goal difference, and every alarm bell should be ringing after a run in which they have picked up two points from a possible 30.
United’s first-half blitz started after 14 minutes and, although Van der Hoorn’s headed clearance was poor, it was a quite brilliant goal that got Mourinho’s team on their way. Pogba, loitering 22 yards from goal, showed wonderful technique to get over the top of a bouncing ball and arrow it into the top corner with his right boot.
Swansea looked shellshocked and Fellaini should have made it 2-0 three minutes later. There were four Swansea players in the penalty area when Matteo Darmian crossed from the left and not one of them could get near the Belgian, who profligately volleyed wide.
It was a reprieve for Swansea but it was only temporary. United were in total control, moving the ball around with ease and it was no surprise when they added a second. Ibrahimovic was the scorer and from Swansea’s point of view the defending was shambolic.
After a long period of United possession, Rooney laid the ball back and Ibrahimovic, in so much space, sidestepped Ki Sung-yueng’s meek attempt to close him down before drilling a low shot from just outside the area that Lukasz Fabianski should have saved. Instead the ball slipped inside the Swansea goalkeeper’s near post and Ibrahimovic celebrated ending a run of 609 minutes without scoring in the Premier League.
With Swansea unable to string three or four passes together in possession and powerless to stem the constant wave of United attacks without the ball, unrest started to fester in the stands.
“We want our club back” reverberated from the hardcore support in the corner of the stadium just as United broke away to score a third. Linking well with Rooney in the centre of the pitch after neatly controlling David de Gea’s long ball upfield, Ibrahimovic traded passes with the United captain, shrugged of Angel Rangel’s weak attempt to stop him and lifted the ball beyond Fabianski.
There were only 33 minutes on the clock and the game was in effect over.
Rooney, escaping in the inside-left channel, should have made it 4-0 shortly afterwards and by that time the Swansea fans had turned on the board members who made millions by selling shares in the summer. “You greedy bastards, get out of our club,” sang the supporters.
Bradley made two changes at half-time and injected some pace into the side by bringing on Modou Barrow and Jefferson Montero for Fernando Llorente and Wayne Routledge, yet the damage was done. A makeshift United defence in which Ashley Young featured at right-back, Darmian operated at left-back, Marcos Rojo played as an auxiliary centre-half and Phil Jones made his first appearance since January, barely broke sweat before the interval.
Swansea reduced the deficit in the second half, when Van der Hoorn met Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick with a powerful header that De Gea, despite getting a hand to the ball, was unable to keep out. Juan Mata, expertly set up by Rooney, then screwed a low shot wide at the other end before Barrow, from Montero’s floated centre, was denied by De Gea. Guardian Service
