Chelsea's decision to sell midfielder Nemanja Matic to rivals Manchester United looks more baffling by the day as as United beat West Ham 4-0 this afternoon and the new signing produced a dominating display.
Jose Mourinho spent £40 million on bringing the midfielder to Old Trafford. Matic signed for Chelsea when Mourinho was in his second spell in charge of the Blues.
Romelu Lukaku will take all the headlines as he bagged a brace for his new club, but the 6ft 4' midfielder was a calming influence between defence and midfield and he dominated from start to finish.
In the 33rd minute, the game was still 0-0 when Matic dispossessed Pedro Obiang in the middle of the park before setting Marcus Rashford away, who slid Romelu Lukaku in to score on his Man Utd league debut.
Lukaku got his second of the game just after half time when he towered over the Hammers defence to head in a beautiful cross by Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Mkhitaryan laid on another goal for French forward Martial late on and the presence of Serbian in the side also allowed record signing Paul Pogba to play more of a free role and he was constantly up and down the pitch.
Pogba got in on the act in injury time to smash home a shot from 20 yards to secure United's biggest opening day victory since they beat Fulham 5-1 in 2006.
Matic outstanding for Man Utd. Makes you wonder why Chelsea sold him. But I don't think he was a player Conte wanted to keep.
— Jason Burt (@JBurtTelegraph) August 13, 2017
Someone at Chelsea needs sacking for agreeing to sell Nemanja Matic. And it isn't Antonio Conte.
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) August 13, 2017
Early days but looks like Mourinho knows more about Nemanja Matic than me. Turn up for the books, that.
— Daniel Harris (@DanielHarris) August 13, 2017
Pogba thoroughly deserves that. Immense with Matic in that central midfield axis
— James Ducker (@TelegraphDucker) August 13, 2017
Great performance from @ManUtd and brilliant individual ones as well. Matic stand out though. A base from which @ManUtd have built on
— Danny Higginbotham (@Higginbotham05) August 13, 2017
Nemanja Matic immense in 1st half, bossing midfield, winning the ball, launching attacks, fine passing, supporting attacks. #MUNWHU
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) August 13, 2017
Matic so fleet of foot on the ball. Almost as if Mourinho knew what he was doing signing a Premier League title winner instead of Fabinho 🙄
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) August 13, 2017
What a half by Matic. 8(11) duels won, 4(4) dribbles completed, vital interception that lead to the goal...
— Artur Petrosyan (@arturpetrosyan) August 13, 2017
