Manchester United 4 Newcastle United 1: Both Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned for United at Old Trafford, but it was the Frenchman who performance really caught the eye.
It would all be better once Paul Pogba comes back, they said, and one look at the scoreline would suggest they were correct. The Manchester United midfielder, on his first appearance since straining his hamstring in September, inspired his side to what was ultimately a dominant win over Newcastle United, but that hardly tells the full story of an important win for the hosts.
Back at the start of the season, when ‘the horses were running free’ and his side were overcoming their opponents at a canter, Jose Mourinho spoke of how he wanted to see United react positively to falling a goal behind. For the first time since February and for only the second time during his tenure, they turned a 1-0 deficit around here to take all three points.
Dwight Gayle’s opening strike for Rafael Benitez’s visitors was cancelled out by an Anthony Martial header and from there onwards, Chris Smalling, Pogba and Romelu Lukaku made sure that Manchester City’s double-digit lead at the top of the table would be cut back to eight points. Even now, in mid-November, a slip-up could have been costly.
Pogba was not the only returnee. Marcos Rojo was named on the bench after recovering from a long-term knee ligament injury, as was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who received the warmest welcome back of the three. The Swede was hailed by all sides of Old Trafford after arriving fashionably late to the pre-match warm-up, then again before kick-off, but there would be little else for the home crowd to cheer about in the opening exchanges.
Shortly after Lukaku had failed to convert full-back Antonio Valencia’s cut-back to open the scoring, Newcastle attempted the same manoeuvre and did so with greater success. After knocking the ball down for DeAndre Yedlin, who out-paced Smalling with a incisive dart down the right, Gayle edged his way into the United penalty area and waited for the return. When the return ball came, he was helped by Victor Lindelof’s calamitous slip, which bought the former Crystal Palace striker enough time to stroke in off the post.