Paul Pogba scored a brace and Anthony Martial added another as Manchester United moved into fourth place in the Premier League table with a 3-0 victory over Fulham in Saturday’s clash at Craven Cottage, reports Completesports.com.
The win was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 10th in 11 Premier League games as caretaker manager of Manchester United, while Fulham remain in 19th position and seven points adrift of safety.
Fulham had the chance after 60 seconds after some good work from Andre Schurrle down the right flank, Luciano Vietto meanwhile somehow failed to hit the target at the back post after meeting the German’s cross.
Pogba ran onto a pass from Martial inside the penalty before drilling the ball inside the near post with Sergio Rico having committed himself to trying to claim a cross.
United grew in confidence as the first half progressed, but their second was down to the individual brilliance of Martial who ran from the halfway line and saw off the attention of down Fulham players before finding the far corner from 15 yards out.
Fulham managed to regain their edge in the middle of the park in order to prevent United from extending their lead, but Phil Jones almost added a magnificent third for the visitors only to see his left-footed strike from 25 yards tipped over by Rico.
Calum Chambers saw a volley from distance saved by David de Gea just before the half-time whistle, but Fulham went into the break needing to overcome a two-goal deficit for the second home game in succession.
Claudio Ranieri changed to a back three shortly after the restart, but the Cottagers barely posed a threat at one end, but United were going through the motions at the other and Ander Herrera should have added a third with a 15-yard volley only for the ball to be directed straight at Rico.
However, United extended their advantage two minutes later as Pogba sent a penalty into the bottom corner after Juan Mata had been upended by Maxime Le Marchand inside the area.
Manchester United will now focus their attention to trying to earn a result against Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday night.
