Anthony Martial scored Manchester United’s first Premier League hat-trick since Robin van Persie for Sir Alex Ferguson’s title-winners in April 2013 as Sheffield United were cuffed aside.
It was also the Frenchman’s inaugural career hat-trick, moving to a best ever tally of 19 in all competitions for United, who stretched their unbeaten run to 13 matches and took their points tally to 49 with seven games left, two behind fourth-placed Chelsea, who play Manchester City on Thursday.
Of Martial, Ole Gunnar Solskjær said: “I’m very happy for Anthony, it’s a shame he couldn’t celebrate with our fans.”
For this first home game of the restart the manager selected close to United’s strongest side with only Scott McTominay missing: he was rested, Nemanja Matic coming in. This meant Paul Pogba broke a 10-month wait for a league start and was paired in the starting XI with the effervescent Bruno Fernandes for a first time.
Chris Wilder made five changes from Sunday’s 3-0 loss at Newcastle, of which Simon Moore for Dean Henderson was enforced due to the latter being an on-loan keeper belonging to Manchester United.
