Mata suffers Mkhitaryan form and other things learned from Man United's win over Brighton

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  • Manchester United edged a narrow 1-0 win at Old Trafford against Brighton on Sunday.

    Ashley Young‘s shot from distance deflected off Lewis Dunk and looped into the back of the net to decide the encounter.

    Here’s what we learned from the encounter.

    MATA PERFORMS MKHITARYAN DISAPPEARING ACT

    Jose Mourinho finally decided to drop Henrikh Mkhitaryan over the past couple of games given his poor form, choosing to play Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial together instead. He may need to find an alternative for Juan Mata now. It’s a shame Andreas Pereira is on loan to Valencia and in fine form too.

    Mata was completely ineffective against Brighton. Despite playing in his favoured attacking midfield role with United enjoying the lion’s share of possession, he was unable to influence the game in the final third.

    He spent most of his time on the pitch fluttering around, struggling to find space between the lines and ending up playing too high or dropping too deep.

    It’s surprising from the Spaniard as well, who normally provides a steady flow of goals and assists regardless of the playing time he is afforded.

    Mata is one of the more honest footballers you will find though and wasn’t lacking in effort but the fact that Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked far more threatening for United when he replaced him in the 62nd minute does speak volumes.

    Reports of Mourinho swooping for Mesut Ozil in January have been doing the rounds and if things keep going the way they are with Mata and Mkhitaryan, that may well be on the cards.

    NOT AN EASY CLEAN SHEET

    David de Gea went the whole game without having a real save to make but that doesn’t mean United’s defence didn’t get stretched on occasion.

    The more Pascal Gross got on the ball, the more likely United were to be carved open. He was excellent on the night, as he has been all season, completing 90.5% of his passes and making three key passes, more than any other player in the game.

    It’s another clean sheet for United, who continue to boast the league’s best defensive record but the fact of the matter is that they were more than a little suspect on the break, particularly without their first-choice centre-backs in Eric Bailly and Phil Jones.

    Brighton were very much the better side in the closing stages and United ended up holding on to a slender one-goal advantage.

    Pascal Gross (L)

    Pascal Gross (L)

    UNITED OVER-RELIANT ON POGBA

    There’s no doubt that Paul Pogba was a big miss for United in the last month or so. His return to action last week against Newcastle was indicative of that. He made them tick and team suddenly had a bit of swagger about them.

    Against FC Basel in midweek, they created chance after chance in the opening hour under his influence and were quickly rendered second best once he was substituted.

    On Saturday at Old Trafford, there was a sense of the United players looking to him to make something happen.

    He had 129 touches in the game, 34 more than Nemanja Matic and made 110 passes 24 more than the Serbian.

    Though while he did well to spread play and orchestrate the game when deeper, he was usually crowded out in the final third and sometimes tried to force the issue to no effect.

    Paul Pogba (C)

    Paul Pogba (C)

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