Manchester United 3-1 Sunderland – Player Ratings + Highlights

Manchester United took the perfect revenge against Sunderland who are not having the best of runs under manager Martin o’neill. United maintain their 6 point lead over rivals city as they played some lovely football to get all important 3 points meaning United will be in top spot for at the start of the festival period. It was again Robin Van Persie who opened the scoring and later assisted a goal for Rooney in-between a delightful Cleverley goal.

The ratings: 

De Gea – A Clean-sheet would have made justice for his performance. Made some spectacular saves when called upon.  8/10

Jones – Had to deal with Sessegnon and did it in style after replacing the rested Rafael in the right back posistion. Burst up and down that right-hand side and put in one good cross after another- a strong performance. 7/10

Rio – Had one small momentary lapse in concentration which almost could have changed the state of the game. Subsituted for the returning Vidic, had an average game. 6.5/10

Smalling – Rock solid, surely a contender for MOTM. Read the game beautifully and put in some excellent tackles. 8.5/10

Evra – Not too much wrong from the Frenchman which is always nice. Tried to support Young with multiple overlapping runs. End product wasn’t there. 6

Valencia –  Started well but faded of as the game went on. He is nowhere near his best from last season and Ferguson has a thing or two to think about. 5/10

Carrick – You just cannot write off this guy. Carrick continued his form from last week and proved to be an attacking threat with a midifeld combination with Cleverley setting up the second goal for him. Was subbed off in the second half for Paul Scholes. 8/10

Cleverley – Is slowly but steadily turning into United’s rock in the midfield.  Was instrumental in lots of the build up play and Kept the ball moving at all times with some nice 1 touch passing. Another MOTM contender. 8/10

Young – It was a mixed performance from Ashley Young, though he set up a goal for Robin Van Persie, his passing sometimes were not the way one would expect from a player with his experience. 6/10

Rooney –  Was not his day but still managed to get on the score-sheet, could have scored an hattrick 7/10

Van Persie – He just cannot stop scoring, that is what can be saiid about Robin Van Persie. Scored a quality goal and impressed everyone with an assist to Rooney. Arsenal have surely sold a gem of a player to their rivals. 8/10

Highlights: