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Rediff.com  » Sports » EPL PHOTOS: United rout Swansea, Liverpool edge past Palace

EPL PHOTOS: United rout Swansea, Liverpool edge past Palace

Last updated on: August 19, 2017 22:02 IST
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Swansea City 0 Manchester United 4

Liverpool 1 Crystal Palace 0

Romelu Lukaku

IMAGE: Romelu Lukaku celebrates scoring the second goal for Manchester United. Photograph: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Manchester United continued their perfect start to the Premier League season by crushing Swansea City 4-0 with three late goals in four minutes at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

The scoreline matched their opening-day destruction of West Ham United after Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and substitute Anthony Martial scored between the 80th and 84th minutes to add to Eric Bailly's first-half opener, his first goal for the club.

Lukaku began the late rout with a neat finish on 80 minutes for his third goal in two games before Pogba surged forward to dink the ball past Lukasz Fabianski and Martial completed the destruction.

Two of the goals came from assists by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was named man of the match.

"It was a tough game, especially in the first half when they had five defenders," the Armenian said.

"In the second half there was more space as they only played with four."

Anthony Martial

IMAGE: Anthony Martial scores the fourth goal for Manchester United. Photograph: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Despite raucous home support, Swansea seldom threatened in the absence of the departed Gylfi Sigurdsson the injured Fernando Llorente, always struggling to deal with United's power and pace and by the end Jose Mourinho's side were bursting forward almost at will.

"I think we are a more confident side this season," said Pogba, who gave a strong performance despite playing most of the match with a yellow card after a wild early challenge.

"Last year we still won two trophies but now we all know each other better and are working for each other."

His words reinforced the feeling that United are a much stronger force this season, not least because of their strength on the bench.

Last week they scored two late goals to finish off West Ham and on Saturday, after injecting Martial into the attack on 75 minutes, they went one better.

Liverpool scrape 1-0 win over Palace

IMAGE: Sadio Mane scores the winning goal for Liverpool. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Liverpool ground out their first Premier League victory of the season after winger Sadio Mane scored an opportunistic goal to give them a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace at Anfield on Saturday.

The pacy Mane took advantage of a double mistake by Palace midfielder Luka Milivojevic and steered the ball past Wayne Hennessey in the 73rd minute, after the Wales goalkeeper had made a string of good saves.

Liverpool enjoyed the lion's share of the possession but the visitors missed the best chance of the match shortly after the break as the home side's former striker Christian Benteke blazed his shot over the bar from six yards.

The opening period was a scrappy affair with passes going astray at either end. The best action came inside a minute as Hennessey denied Roberto Firmino before opposite goalkeeper Simon Mignolet kept out a fiercely struck Jason Puncheon effort.

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Source: REUTERS
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