United breeze past the Hammers while Southampton knock the wind out of Arsenal’s sails in a compelling night of EFL Cup quarter-final action.
Here’s how they played out.
Manchester United 4 West Ham United 1
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (11.1) and Anthony Martial (9.3) grabbed two goals apiece, but it was Henrikh Mkhitaryan (8.9) who caught the eye in a fine attacking display from the whole team.
The Armenian midfielder has now started United’s two most recent midweek matches and excelled in both, providing a pair of assists as West Ham were put to the sword after the break.
United started brightly and went ahead after just two minutes when Ibrahimovic finished cutely from a Mkhitaryan backheel, only for the visitors to equalise when David de Gea (5.4) could only parry Dmitri Payet’s (9.2) shot and former Old Trafford youth teamer Ashley Fletcher (5.0) fired home the rebound.
The lead was restored just after the break when Mkhitaryan set up Martial and the tie was done and dusted on the hour mark, the Frenchman scoring again from an Antonio Valencia (5.4) cross.
Ibrahimovic made it four in time added on, finishing from close range following fine work by Ander Herrera (6.3), and that scoreline didn’t flatter United, who had 10 attempts on target to the Hammers’ two.
But it wasn’t all wine and roses for Jose Mourinho’s men.
The coach, banned from the touchline for one match, watched from a secret location at the ground as Wayne Rooney (8.6) picked up his fifth booking of the season to rule him out of Sunday’s trip to Everton.
Cautions for Valencia and West Ham’s Pedro Obiang (4.4) also put the pair on the suspension tightrope.
And Luke Shaw (5.3), at 10.7% still the most popular United defender in Fantasy Premier League, picked up a knock and had to be replaced by Daley Blind (5.7) at half-time.
Things were no better for Slaven Bilic, with Michail Antonio (6.8) and Aaron Cresswell (5.3) limping off, both with groin injuries, although the coach was relatively optimistic post-match as he began looking towards Saturday’s late fixture at home to Arsenal.
“Cresswell’s injury doesn’t look that bad. His groin felt very tight and hopefully it’s just fatigue from Sunday. With Antonio, hopefully it’s the same but we don’t know yet. We have a tough game on Saturday and we have a couple of players who came off injured, but we wanted to preserve players for then and Dimitri Payet also.”
United must fancy their chances of making the final now that they know they’ll have two legs to get the better of Hull City.
The first, at Old Trafford, precedes a Gameweek 21 grudge match with Liverpool, the second will be followed by a Gameweek 23 home encounter with…Hull.
Mourinho has a squad strong enough to cope, although the extra fixtures will create inevitable issues for Fantasy managers.
The more immediate questions are whether Ibrahimovic can maintain his current scoring form to restore Fantasy faith and if Mourinho will at last give Mkhitaryan a prolonged chance to shine in the league.
Judging by Jose’s post-match comments, he still sees Mkhitaryan as a work in progress…
“Today was against a proper and typical Premier League team and Micky could perform this way. So I’m really happy. We know the reason why we bought him and we were waiting for his adaptation and it looks like it’s coming.”
But with Rooney missing at Goodison Park, an opportunity may just knock for the emerging Armenian.
Man United XI: De Gea, Valencia, Jones, Rojo, Shaw (Blind 45), Herrera, Carrick, Mkhitaryan (Rashford 90), Rooney, Martial (Schweinsteiger 86), Ibrahimovic.
Subs not used: Mata, Lingard, Romero, Schneiderlin.
West Ham XI: Adrián, Kouyaté, Reid, Ogbonna, Antonio (Lanzini 58), Fernandes, Obiang, Cresswell (Masuaku 45), Feghouli, Fletcher, Payet (Zaza 76).
Subs not used: Randolph, Nordtveit, Noble, Collins.
Arsenal 0 Southampton 2
Southampton were good value for their win at The Emirates, allowing Arsenal plenty of possession but little opportunity and showing a ruthless touch when they had the ball themselves.
Arsene Wenger made 10 changes and it showed, whereas Claude Puel’s eight new faces gave his team a distinctly Europa League look. That proved decisive – while the Gunners sparked only sporadically, Southampton remained a consistently cohesive unit well used to midweek action.
Even the inclusion of first-team regulars Aaron Ramsey (7.6), Alex Iwobi (5.8), Francis Coquelin (4.3) and Mohammed Elneny (4.6) couldn’t inspire Arsenal and the visitors went ahead with a long-range effort by Jordy Clasie (4.7) before doubling their lead when Ryan Bertrand (5.4) finished after excellent work from Sofiane Boufal (6.8).
Elneny was the sole survivor from the weekend win over Bournemouth, but he didn’t make it to half-time as he succumbed to an illness that makes him a doubt for a Saturday evening trip to West Ham.
Carl Jenkinson (5.0) was then taken off after the break, presumably as a precaution considering he is now the Gunners’ only recognised right-back currently available.
As for the Saints, key Fantasy assets Charlie Austin (6.9) and Nathan Redmond (6.0) didn’t even make the squad and Cedric Soares, at 4.9 a good value route into a strengthening Southampton defence, was an unused substitute.
The semi-final draw has pitted the victors against Liverpool and will throw up fixture complications as Southampton are due to host Leicester in Gameweek 22 on Monday, January 23 – the second leg of the cup tie is scheduled for the day after.
The Saints will follow the first leg with a Gameweek 21 trip to Burnley and are away again, at Swansea City, once the semi-final is over.
With potential FA Cup and Europa League duties to pencil in as well, Puel’s squad could be severely stretched during 2017’s early months.
Arsenal XI: Martinez, Jenkinson (Naitland-Niles 64), Gabriel, Holding, Gibbs, Elneny (Xhaka 43), Coquelin, Reine-Adelaide (Oxlade-Chamberlain 62), Ramsey, Iwobi, Perez.
Subs not used: Beilik, Bola, Macey, Mavididi.
Southampton XI: Forster, Martina, Yoshida, van Dijk, Bertrand, Reed (Hojbjerg 65), Clasie, Davis, Boufal (Sims 66), Long, McQueen.
Subs not used: Soares, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Stephens, Lewis.
