MAN UNITED 1, AFC BOURNEMOUTH 0
Romelu Lukaku spared Manchester United’s blushes with the match-winning goal in an underwhelming home victory against AFC Bournemouth.
The striker’s 15th goal of the season – but only his second in the last 10 Premier League games – was all that separated the teams.
But on the balance of play, United were lucky as David De Gea was by far the busier of the two keepers as it was hard to believe the second-placed Reds were playing the struggling South Coast side.
And the stats showed how unlucky the Cherries were to leave Old Trafford empty handed as they had 13 goal attempts to United’s nine while on target chances were 7-2 in Bournemouth’s favour.
The frustration of the home fans surfaced late on with chants of “attack, attack, attack” as they hardly threatened the visitors.
United manager Jose Mourinho thought his side could have won more convincingly.
He said: “Our best period was the first period of the second half when we had the two biggest chances of the game to kill the game through (Anthony) Martial and Marcus (Rashford) who could have scored a fantastic goal.
“And by not scoring a second, that gave them hope and determination – and they also had the quality – to take something from the game.
“(Jermain) Defoe had a close, angled shot but that was the only dangerous situation they had, despite their dominancy. But the result remained open to the end.”
Mourinho added there was a determination from his side – from the first minute to the last second – not to lose a second successive match.
And he praised Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay for seizing the chances afforded to them.
Mourinho described Shaw as having given “a fantastic hour of football” and explained why McTominay had played the full 90 minutes in each of his three starts, declaring he was ” an adult playing really well and not a kid”.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was delighted with the way his side played, but disappointed to leave empty handed.
“It was very encouraging to come here and play in the manner we did,” he enthused.
“I give the boys a lot of credit for limiting United to the number of chances they had.”
United made four changes from the side that kicked off Sunday’s derby.
There were recalls for Phil Jones and Shaw in defence along with Juan Mata and McTominay in midfield.
The players losing out were Ashley Young, Ander Herrera, Rashford, who were on the bench, and the injured Marcos Rojo.
Bournemouth went with Callum Wilson and Josh King in a bold 4-4-2 formation, though Jermain Defoe was only on the bench.
It was a low-key opening, a fact underlined by the fact that it took until the 21st minute before either keeper was called into action.
And it was United’s De Gea who pulled off a smart save low to his left to turn away a decent drive from Charlie Daniels.
Bournemouth had another good effort moments late when Dan Gosling cut inside and saw his fiercely-struck shot beaten out by De Gea.
United took the lead with their first clear-cut chance when Lukaku outjumped Nathan Ake to meet Mata’s cross to head home from six yards. It was his sixth goal in five games against the Cherries and 15th of the season.
De Gea was forced into a third important save in the opening half hour to beat away a shot from Junior Stanislas that took a noticeable deflection.
Simon Francis then spooned over a shot from eight yards as Bournemouth were decidedly unlucky to be behind.
Martial missed a sitter on the hour blazing over from six yards following Lukaku’s cut back.
United made their first change midway through the second period when Rashford replaced Martial and it was soon followed by a second as Herrera came on for Lingard.
And Rashford almost made an immediate impact with a shot out of nothing from 20 yards that hit the crossbar.
Substitute Defoe came close to an equaliser as his close-range shot struck the knees of De Gea.
United made their last change with seen minutes left as Young took over from Shaw.
Bournemouth had one last chance in the four minutes of stoppage time, but botched a free kick that was set up for Charlie Daniels to have a strike. The ball ran free to Ryan Fraser, but he fired straight at De Gea as their final hope of an equaliser disappeared.