Swansea City 1-3 Manchester United: Ibrahimović brace caps comfortable win

Manchester United got back to winning ways on Sunday, with José Mourinho’s side seeing off Swansea City 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium. It was a deserved victory for the Red Devils, who were scarcely challenged by their struggling opponents. Let’s hope it’s the start of some good form.

United dominated the match from the first whistle, with Swansea looking to do little more than sit deep and soak up everything that came their way. In possession the Swans were hopeless, with strikers Borja Bastón and Fernando Llorente scarcely seeing any of the ball throughout the first half.

The upshot was that United comfortably controlled the game, and made their pressure count after just a quarter-of-an-hour. A knockdown by Zlatan Ibrahimović was caught sweetly on the volley by Paul Pogba, whose shot rocketed into the top corner of Łukasz Fabianski’s goal.

The Polish shot-stopper was powerless to stop Pogba’s strike, but he should’ve done better when Ibrahimović doubled United’s lead midway through the first half — and scored the Premier League’s 25,000th goal in the process. The Swedish international’s low shot from outside the area was well-struck, though perhaps shouldn’t have been allowed to creep inside the near post.

The game was almost embarrassingly easy for United, who had cruised into a two-goal lead without ever stepping out of first gear. They all but wrapped up the victory just past the half hour mark, when Ibrahimović stumbled his way straight through the Swansea defence before poking high past Fabianski for three.

The Swans improved after some halftime reorganisation, though not enough to mount a serious challenge. They did manage to pull a goal back with just over 20 minutes remaining, when defender Mike van der Hoorn got up to head a Gylfi Sigurðsson free-kick beyond David de Gea, but it proved nothing more than a consolation.

However, some more bad news was to follow before the full-time whistle: Ibrahimović was booked, and so will miss United’s encounter with Arsenal as a result. After today’s promising performance, that’s sure to come as a blow for Mourinho.