Manchester United’s incredible run at Old Trafford continued with a 14th win in 15 at the Theatre of Dreams as they dispatched Leicester City 3-0 to keep up the pressure on Arsenal and Manchester City at the Premier League (PL) summit.
Buoyed by a pair of PL victories, Leicester started brightly and could count themselves a tad unlucky not to have taken an early lead when Harvey Barnes’ strike was saved by David de Gea and Tetê’s effort flashed across the face of goal.
The Foxes came even closer to taking a surprise lead just moments later too, when Timothy Castagne’s cross was headed goalward by Kelechi Iheanacho which prompted a Gordon Banks-esque one-handed save from De Gea.
When you miss chances against the big sides – you get punished – as Leicester found out.
If United were going to get a goal there was no doubting where it would come from, and it was the man of the moment Marcus Rashford who latched onto Bruno Fernandes’ deft ball to fire home, as he became the first United player in the post Sir Alex Ferguson era to score in seven successive PL home games.
Fernandes was again the architect as United should’ve made it two, but his sumptuous delivery was incredibly diverted wide from a matter of yards by Diogo Dalot.
United exposed Leicester’s high line for their opener, and they out-foxed their visitors again in similar circumstances after the break.
With his last involvement of the game, Fred’s delicate ball freed Rashford in his customary inside-left position and the PL’s in-form man made no mistake in firing beneath Danny Ward to double United’s advantage.
United were purring by this point and swiftly added a third in fine fashion when half-time substitute Jadon Sancho played a tidy one-two with Fernandes before confidently dispatching his second goal in as many games at Old Trafford.
In truth, United could probably have gone on to score more, but both Wout Weghorst and Sancho spurned chances to see United score four in a home PL game for the first time since September 2021.
There was to be no cherry on the cake for the hosts, who were forced to settle for just the three goals, though the three points are ultimately all that matters to Erik ten Hag, who despite his reluctance to admit United are in a title race will be acutely aware his side are well placed to pounce upon any slip-ups.
