Marcus Rashford’s 23rd and 24th goals of a campaign he will long cherish were taken with cool aplomb and sent Manchester United en route to the perfect start of what they hope proves a landmark eight days. Erik ten Hag’s men are again five points behind Arsenal, having played a game more, and entertain Barcelona here in Thursday’s Europa League playoff second leg, the tie poised at 2-2. Knock the Catalan side out and beat Newcastle in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final and United will have enjoyed their finest week of recent memory.
Rashford’s first-half opener, against a Leicester team that might have already been 4-0 up, made him the first United player to score in seven consecutive Premier League home outings since Wayne Rooney in 2010. For the centre-forward’s second, after the break, he skated on to Fred’s pass and beat Danny Ward through the goalkeeper’s legs, while Jadon Sancho’s finish derived, too, from a smart United sequence: Lisandro Martínez pickpocketed Kelechi Iheanacho and passed to Rashford, who pinged the ball to the wide man. After he swapped passes with Bruno Fernandes, Sancho’s left foot did the rest.
United had initially taken the contest to their visitors, as Fernandes and Rashford claimed corners via barrelling runs along the right. Luke Shaw executed these but they amounted to nothing and Leicester began counterpunching.
Wout Faes, Victor Kristiansen, and Tetê knitted passes together and the last of these zipped down the right for Timothy Castagne and turned United on their heels. They escaped but more dangerous Leicester play ensued. Harvey Barnes procured the ball from Iheanacho, shot and saw David de Gea’s right mitt repel his strike. Then, Iheanacho weak effort was blocked by Victor Lindelöf.
“Champions of England more recent than you,” sang Leicester’s support gleefully to their hosts, who were soon again back-wheeling frantically: Tetê’s cross would have been met by the unmarked James Maddison if not for Fred, who had sprinted back to cover for his side.
Tetê, signed from Shakhtar Donetsk on loan in January, was raiding those in red for fun along his right flank: the next time he cut inside and blazed across De Gea’s goal, deepening Ten Hag’s unhappiness at what he witnessed from the sideline.
When Iheanacho rose to head at goal the manager seemed about to curse the opener before De Gea made another sparkling save to his right, this one not unlike Gordon Banks’s famous stop from Pelé at the 1970 World Cup.
It was vital because United soon scored. A loose Faes pass was gobbled up by Marcel Sabitzer, who fed Fernandes. The playmaker’s outside-of-a-boot release had Rashford padding in and, on pulling the trigger, the No 10 beat Ward to the latter’s right.
Ten Hag hailed the strike while pulling Diogo Dalot over for a stern word about positioning, the manager conscious of his team’s vulnerability. In this tale of two leaky defences Leicester’s was the next to be breached when Wout Weghorst tapped to Dalot who after surging forward relayed the ball to Fernandes. He delivered a daisy-cutter back to Dalot and the defender, yards out, should have doubled the lead.
Ten Hag’s verdict on the opening period was pithy. “We have to follow the rules of our way of playing,” he said. “When we don’t it is a mess. We were really lucky at half-time to be up. Great goal, for the rest it is rubbish.”
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When the sides changed ends Sancho had replaced Alejandro Garnacho for United, who soon had Martínez crashing a header off the bar, Fernandes warming Ward’s digits, and Rashford slaloming through but unable to score. Weghorst, with an overhead kick plus two late fluffed chances, and Fernandes, shooting into Ward’s hands, joined the list of those in United livery suffering from profligacy before Rashford showed how to do it, for the second time.
Sancho’s goal was his second in three league appearances, killed off those in blue and ensured United took seven of the nine points available during the three-match suspension of their lead midfielder, Casemiro. The clean sheet resulted in De Gea equalling Peter Schmeichel’s record of 180 for the club.
