Marcus Rashford will have plenty of chances to prove his worth to Jose Mourinho after sinking Hull City with a last-gasp victor.
Advertisement
Second-placed Manchester United are behind Chelsea only on goals scored after Marcus Rashford struck deep into second-half stoppage time to snatch a 1-0 win at Hull City.
The 18-year-old burst onto the scene in the closing months of last season, becoming the club’s first-choice striker and earning his place in England’s Euro 2016 squad.
The style of the win was reminiscent of life under Sir Alex Ferguson, whose teams notoriously scored late goals to secure victory.
“He’s different than (Wayne) Rooney, he’s different than Zlatan, so everybody is happy with him and we’re happy with the squad”.
Rooney ghosted round Hull full-back Ahmed Elmohamady before sending over an inch-perfect cross for Rashford to tap home from two yards.
Towards the end of his post-match press conference, Mourinho announced that the midfielder, who has started every Premier League game this season, will travel with his national team for their friendly against Spain, Belgium’s first fixture under new boss Roberto Martinez, but that he is indeed hurt.
“It’s not the victor that has made me change my mind (about the role Rashford will play this season)”, the coach added. I don’t know. I have to analyse.
“That is important because after 13 home games without a clean sheet this helps the confidence and shows the hard work is paying off”. “He’s 18-years-old”.
“The kid is going to play lots of matches, for sure”.
“It is disappointing for the players, they have put a serious amount of work in to get to a point where they think they have a result”, Hull caretaker manager Mike Phelan said.
Ehab Allam, one of Hull’s owners, indicated in the match programme that a deal has been agreed to sell the club, without confirming the buyers, believed to be a Chinese consortium led by commercial property investors Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li.
“It was a good game and performance and we played good football”, Blues manager Antonio Conte said.
“This Man United team now is on a bit of a roll and they are strong, and strong in the depth they have got as well”.
“But I told them at half-time that in the training session on Wednesday they were faster and more aggressive than they were in the first half today.”
Hull are expected to complete the signing of goalkeeper David Marshall from Cardiff next week after the Welsh club confirmed they had accepted a bid.
Advertisement
He added: “We want to be champions, we don’t want to start well, we want to finish well”. “We need to get cracking”.
