Ole Gunner Solskjaer’s description of the match against Brighton is “their best performance of the season.”
Solskjaer said, “It was exhilarating and entertaining. How we didn’t end up with five, six or seven, I don’t know.”
Midfielder, Andreas Pereira and striker, Marcus Rashford scored either side of a Davy Propper’s own goal to give United their biggest home Premier League triumph since August.
After the 3-1 win over Brighton, United stands on the seventh-place making it their highest position for two months.
Rashford should have had one more but inexplicably fired Daniel James’ cross wide of an open goal.
Matt Ryan, Brighton’s keeper, saved from James and Fred before denying what would have neem a memorable solo effort from Martial.
After their 3-0 win over Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League on Thursday, it was the first time United had scored six in two games since March and extended a run of five-win in six games in all competitions since a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
“If we don’t get confidence from this, I don’t know what to tell them,” added Solskjaer.
The victory came at a cost, though, as midfielder Scott McTominay had to be carried down the tunnel on a stretcher after falling awkwardly. He will have a scan on his injured ankle on Monday.
It was a familiar story for Brighton. The club has never won at Old Trafford and never looked like breaking that sequence. Instead, they allowed Rashford to restore the hosts’ two-goal cushion two minutes after Lewis Dunk’s header had given them hope.
Managers reactions
Solskjaer, “Anthony Martial did not get a goal but he was outstanding. Brandon Williams was excellent too. He has had some good names already and he seems he wants to be out there and enjoy himself.”
“The table does not matter at the moment. We need to keep improving and keep winning games and see where it takes us.”
Graham Potter, “They deserved to win the games. If you make any mistake, they can turn defense into the attack so quickly.”
“The players gave their best. But sometimes, you have to accept you are playing against a better team. We had a decent period in the league and now we need to get ready for another tough match.”
“The key moment for us when we went 2-1 down despite not being much in the game, if we could have kept that score for longer, it could have made a difference. But United responded by scoring their third goal so early in transition.”