Mourinho has spent nearly £150millon turning United into title contenders this summer but with £89million man Paul Pogba suspended and Henrikh Mkhitaryan starting on the bench, it was left to Ibrahimovic to provide the blockbuster appeal.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become a meal time magnet for United’s young players eager to learn from the veteran Swede.
But if there was an element of good fortune to United’s first two goals, there was no doubting the sheer class of its third.
Mata will also hope to be judged on merit rather than reputation, after all his United career only began when Mourinho decided he was not suited to his style of play at Chelsea while in the Community Shield last weekend, the Spaniard endured the humiliation of coming on and off again as a substitute.
Boos rained down from the Emirates stands and despite substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chambers replying for the hosts, Liverpool closed out their first away win over Arsenal since 2011.
He joined Manchester United in a shock move three months later.
As for his first impression of Premier League football, the Swedish forward added: “It’s not easy”.
Mourinho said the striker will be “phenomenal” for United and the Premier League as a whole, and doesn’t understand how Ibrahimovic wasn’t able to break the dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in voting for FIFA’s world player of the year.
As much as his title-winning know-how, Ibrahimovic was signed from PSG to inject some panache and self-belief into a United changing room that had lost the self-assurance of the Ferguson era. How big are you?
Wayne Rooney was delighted with how his on-field partnership with Zlatan Ibrahimovic panned out for Manchester United on Sunday.
There was no need for such excuses from Mourinho, whose first league game in charge of United was a far more comfortable affair.
Ibrahimovic is also having an impact behind the scenes.
After scoring twice in his final PSG game, a 4-2 win against Marseille in the French Cup final, he said “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
Mourinho made a similar observation about Ibrahimovic.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has told fans they’re going to have learn to love Marouane Fellaini – if he keeps up his good performances.
“Playing in Spain is different to England, playing in Villarreal is different to Man U”.
But Coutinho equalised with a glorious free-kick in first-half stoppage time before making it 3-1 with a neat volley after Georginio Wijnaldum had teed up Lallana to put Liverpool ahead.
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Informed by Cantona, in a tongue-in-cheek video message, that there could only be one “King” of Old Trafford, Ibrahimovic responded that he would be the “God”.
