‘THERE’S nothing to shout about here,’ insisted David Moyes after seeing his Manchester United side win their second away game of Christmas week. ‘We are doing OK but we are not shouting about it.’
It is not the four consecutive Barclays Premier League wins or the 11 away matches unbeaten that offer cause for cautious optimism, but the nature of United’s two most recent victories.
They are now showing that classic United resolve of a team who do not know they are beaten.
United had seven shots on Saturday and Norwich had 15, yet the champions still took all three points. They profited from a lucky ricochet after 57 minutes that saw substitute Danny Welbeck pounce for his 10th goal of the season for club and country and then held on, using all the legal tricks in the book and running down the clock.
Norwich boss Chris Hughton said: ‘United are so used to grinding out results and of course their level of performance can’t be high on every single occasion. Over the 90 minutes we were the better team but they got their win and we didn’t get ours.’
Norwich had beaten United in two of their three previous home meetings but this time they were punished for wasting a string of first-half chances.
Even without Robin van Persie, who is back in light training, and Wayne Rooney, who is expected to recover from a groin injury to face Tottenham at Old Trafford on Wednesday, United still had enough firepower to make Norwich pay.
Welbeck was the difference, replacing Ryan Giggs at half-time after the Welshman battled through the first 45 minutes with a hamstring injury. Welbeck has always been a willing runner, but on Saturday his finishing matched his energy.
The 23-year-old is doing much better in front of goal than in 2012-13 when he scored only once in the Premier League but Moyes is demanding even more — 20 goals to be precise. ‘He should be certainly looking to score 20 goals,’ said Moyes.
‘We need him to do that because when you don’t have Wayne and you don’t have Robin then you need people to step up to the mark — and in quite a few of the games recently he has done that.’
SUPER STAT: United have not lost away since a 4-1 defeat at Manchester City on September 22. That’s 99 days, 11 matches, seven victories and four draws.
Norwich CITY (4-4-1-1): Ruddy 6; Martin 7, Bennett 5, Bassong 6, Olsson 7; Snodgrass 6 (Murphy 79min), Fer 6, Johnson 6, Redmond 7; Hoolahan 7 (Elmander 89); Hooper 6 (Van Wolfswinkel 69, 4). Subs not used: Bunn, Whittaker, Garrido, Becchio.
Booked: Fer, Johnson, Bennett.
ManCHESTER United (4-2-3-1): De Gea 7; Smalling 6, Vidic 7, Evans 6, Evra 5; Cleverley 6, Carrick 5; Young 5, Giggs 4 (Welbeck 45, 8), Kagawa 5 (Januzaj 69, 6); Hernandez 5 (Fletcher 87). Subs not used: Lindegaard, Anderson, Fabio, Zaha.
Booked: Giggs, Hernandez.
Man of the match: Danny Welbeck. Referee: Phil Dowd 7. – Daily Mail