By Dave Marshal
Summer signing, Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave a sneak preview to the Old Trafford faithfuls of his astounding quality, as he delivered a masterclass as The Red Devils brushed aside West Ham 4-1 to progress to the semifinals of the EFL Cup on Wednesday night. The 27 year old Armenian playmaker, who joined in the summer from Borussia Dortmund gave his most impressive performance in a United shirt till date as he created two superb goals for his teammates, and is clearly delighted by the general performance of the team. Mkhitaryan has endured a difficult start to life in England, but made use of the rare opportunity he was given by Jose Mourinho as he and United ran riot on the night.
After playing a 1-1 draw with the same opponents on Sunday evening, Jose made a host of changes despite serving a touchline ban. Things got off to the perfect start after just two minutes as Mkhitaryan found Zlatan with a clever back heeled pass. Further goals from Martial (brace) and Ibrahimovic in stoppage time ensured that the 20-time English champions made light work of Slaven Bilic’s team and they now face Hull in the semifinals in January as they seek to win the first trophy in the Jose Mourinho era.
Speaking to MUTV after the match, the former Shakhtar man said, “I’m excited for the performance, I’m excited for my performance” “We’ve done a good job. We’ve tried our best to win because the last game, on Sunday against West Ham, wasn’t very good for us when we didn’t win.”But I think this time everything worked out and we’re very pleased.” he added.
Manchserter United have been inconsistent in the league all season, despite enjoying decent cup runs in the Europa League and EFL Cup. Mkhitaryan will be looking to start in the next game at Everton in the coming days as United look to climb up the Premier league table.