Your Monday Briefing is here to provide a punchy round-up of Manchester United news, views and events from the weekend…
Let’s start with an important Premier League win at Turf Moor that was secured via Anthony Martial’s intelligent 54th-minute finish past Nick Pope. It secured a fourth consecutive win for the Reds in 2018 that maintained a certain amount of pressure on runaway leaders Manchester City, who still hold a 12-point advantage at the top after beating Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium later on Saturday. Elsewhere in the top six, Chelsea and Arsenal both secured victories, but Tottenham Hotspur dropped two points by drawing at Southampton. Liverpool are in action this evening against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.
Speaking after the win about Mr Sanchez, the name that was on everybody’s lips over the weekend, Jose explained:
“I expect soon or never. I think it's so close, so close, so close that if it doesn't happen, it's not going to happen, so I am positive. I know that my people are doing absolutely everything they can - the owners with the green light and Mr Woodward working hard. I think everybody is giving everything they can and I think we're going to be successful.”
Back to the game and Tony Martial was voted our star man by fans on Twitter with 65 per cent of votes cast, which was hardly surprising. Yet there was a shock in the tunnel afterwards when the popular forward conducted his first-ever MUTV interview in English with lead commentator Stewart Gardner, telling him:
“I think we played good, it was a good game and the most important thing was to get the win, so everyone is happy. Romelu did good work and I did a good shot, so I am happy.”
Our next opponents, in this Friday's Emirates FA Cup fourth-round tie, suffered a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Chesterfield at Huish Park, after conceding a 93rd-minute goal to substitute Kristian Dennis.
Otis Khan was also shown a straight red card for shoving referee Kevin Johnson and, as a result, the former United trainee and huge Reds fan will miss the game against us.
“What you've got is a broken lad,”boss Darren Way told BBC Somerset. “He's done about four or five interviews [about playing against United] and I'm gutted for the player. The boy is from Manchester, he knows at that time his dreams are shattered and no matter what, you can't prepare a human being to be able to deal with that.”
10: A GOAL FOR WILSON
James Wilson scored on his full debut for loan club Sheffield United in the sixth minute of a 2-1 win at Norwich City that kept them in the Championship play-off places. “People talk about getting the first goal so it was important,”
said boss Chris Wilder. “It gave us a lift and settled us down.”
11: MITCHELL STOLE THE SHOW
Demi Mitchell also made an excellent loan debut for Heart of Midlothian in Scotland, by winning the Man of the Match award after a 1-0 win over city rivals Hibernian. Mitchell's temporary manager Craig Levein said: “When good players come into the dressing room you think we’ll have to up our standards, and also they’re here to help. The two debutants for Hearts I thought were fantastic.”
12: BEST WISHES TO RVP
Good luck to former United striker Robin van Persie, who has signed for his boyhood club Feyenoord on a free transfer some 14 years after leaving the Dutch giants. He will work under his former Netherlands team-mate Giovanni van Bronckhorst, whose side are currently fifth in the Eredivisie.