Man Utd claim victory over Bournemouth to close third-place gap
Man Utd were looking to win six consecutive games for the first time since January 2019 and got off to a flying start after 23 minutes, when Christian Eriksen delivered a beautiful cross into the box where Casemiro escaped his marker to rifle the ball into the roof of the net. The Red Devils had all of the big chances in the opening 45 minutes and almost doubled their lead with a ruthless counter attack that saw Bruno Fernandes’ cross just evade Marcus Rashford at the far post as a superb touch from Lloyd Kelly took the ball beyond his reach.
United started the second half as the aggressors and got an early goal as their reward as Luke Shaw carried the ball forward before a couple of intricate passes worked the ball to Alejandro Garnacho who returned the ball to Shaw with a lovely pass across the six-yard box for the left back to score. The Reds had a golden opportunity to further strengthen their lead through Anthony Martial, but the Frenchman sent a free header wide from six yards out.
With United conceding just one goal in their last eight home games and Bournemouth failing to score in any of their three games since the restart, a comeback was looking unlikely. However, the Cherries did manage to force a couple of strong saves from David de Gea as the Spaniard saved Philip Billing’s strong header before denying Jaidon Anthony. Man Utd added another goal late on through Rashford as he finished from a ball across the face of goal from Fernandes to secure all three points.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Casemiro (Manchester United)
