Bournemouth 1 Manchester United 3: Jose Mourinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic get off to a flying start with thumping victory

jose mourinho and manutd  celebriting

Just 90 minutes into the Jose Mourinho era at Manchester United, and there they were, top of the league. Don’t laugh. The last time that happened to a Mourinho team they didn’t let it go until the title was won.
Other results were pending, of course. One away win at Bournemouth does not a title challenge make. Then again, there was too much that was good here to just dismiss it as a first-weekend irrelevance.
Much of what Mourinho tried worked and key individuals left a mark on the game. Wayne Rooney scored, so did Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata. Eric Bailly looked strong at the back and David de Gea’s good form continued.

Chris Smalling’s absence may prove unfortunate. Daley Blind’s intelligence seems a perfect foil for Bailly’s physicality and United looked nicely balanced, even at the formative stage with Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to come. Lead from the front is Mourinho’s style and his team began by doing just that.
Bournemouth, though small in stature, are no mugs but United swept them aside. They were a goal up by half-time and three clear with 26 minutes remaining. Adam Smith pulled one back after 69 minutes but it was no more than window-dressing.
For all of Manchester United’s riches, few regarded this game as a pushover.
Pogba, the world’s most expensive player, is expected to make his debut against Southampton on Friday and Mourinho left Mkhitaryan on the bench. So this remains a team in transition.

Ibrahimovic

What is clear, though, is that Mourinho has got them going. He never left the technical area, barking instructions at Luke Shaw or rebuking Blind for inaccurate long passes. When the travelling fans attempted to get cosy by singing his name and asking for a wave, he wisely ignored it. He has to whip United into title-winning shape, shake off the torpor of last season. He can’t get sidetracked by endless call and response.
A mistake eventually gave United the lead although it wasn’t sheer luck but the hard running of Mata that was key to the first goal. Mata? Hard running? Maybe the penny has dropped that it is only mediocre workrate that will keep a super talented player out of a Mourinho team.
The manager loves skill. He adores talent. But he knows it only goes so far in today’s Premier League. Mata’s performance combined the best of both worlds. He certainly has a future at United if he plays like this.
Rewind seven days and Mata was put on and then taken off after 30 minutes of the Community Shield because Mourinho wanted bigger players to resist a late aerial bombardment from Leicester. This was interpreted as a sign of a schism between the pair.
Confounding the conspiracy theorists, Mourinho preferred Mata to Mkhitaryan and was rewarded with a performance full of the industry so many say is missing from Mata’s game. He closed down, he tackled, he tracked, and when Herrera overhit another ball from deep in the 40th minute, he kept running even though it looked a lost cause.
This put pressure on Simon Francis, who, having swept up the loose ball, under-clubbed his back pass to goalkeeper Artur Boruc. Mata was quick on to that, too, Boruc just winning the race but the ball flying free before striking the luckless Francis, sending it back to Mata. The goalkeeper down, the goal open, he made no mistake.

There was an element of good fortune in the second goal too but not in the execution. Luis Antonio Valencia crossed from the right and Martial mis-hit a volley which cannoned into the turf, bouncing up to Rooney. He reacted superbly, steering a header past Boruc with the assurance of a born goalscorer.

Rooney will shrug and say it is what he is there to do but deep down he will recognise the importance of a goal to open the campaign. Mourinho has charged him with being a matchwinner again this season after his dalliance in midfield and there are many who doubt he has it in him. It certainly didn’t look that way, though.

Ibrahimovic was not to be denied on his Premier League debut and in the 64th minute turned a meandering attack into a deadly assault — killing any hope of a Bournemouth revival with a shot from 30 yards which flew low into the far corner.

He has now found the net in his first game in Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, the Champions League and the Premier League. Lasting the full 90 minutes, plus four minutes of injury time, he looked a Manchester United player from topknot to toe. Mourinho celebrated his goal extravagantly. He knows how to feed the Zlatan ego, too.