West Brom 1-2 Man United player ratings, stats and reaction: Lukaku strikes again as Jose Mourinho’s side close gap on rivals

Man United beat West Brom 2-1 at the Hawthorns this afternoon as Jose Mourinho’s closed the almighty gap between them and their rivals Man City at the top of the table.

The away side opened the scoring through Belgian international Lukaku, who met Ashley Young’s cross before heading the ball past the hopeless Ben Foster.

United then scored a second through Jesse Lingard, as the England international smashes his shot past Foster thanks to a deflection from Ahmed Hegazi in the 35th minute.

West Brom then pulled one back late in the second half through Gareth Barry, however they couldn’t find an equaliser as the away side held on for all three points.

Following this result, Man United are now 11 points behind rivals Man City, having been 14 behind at the start of play.

Man of the Match

Man United’s danger-man Romelu Lukaku will take most of the plaudits today, as the Belgian did well against a big West Brom defence as his side won their sixth games in their last seven.

Lukaku took his goal brilliant, and the forward’s hold up play was brilliant as his did his best against two very physical defenders in Jonny Evans and Ahmed Hegazi.

This tweet sums up the 24-year-old’s goal and performance perfectly this afternoon

Flop of the Match

Argentine international Claudio Yacob had a shocker today, with the player being slow on the ball and offered nothing going forward for the Baggies.

The player was even dragged off at half time for Barry by boss Alan Pardew, which sums up the player’s performance pretty well.

This fan wasn’t impressed with Yacob or his replacement Barry!

Stat of the Match

West Brom must hate coming up against Lukaku at this point!

Player Ratings

West Brom: Foster 6, Nyom 6 Hegazi 7, Evans 7, Gibbs 6, Livermore 6, Yacob 5, Krychowiak 5, Burke 6, Rondon 6, McClean 6  / Subs: Rodriguez 6, Barry 7, Brunt 6

Man United: De Gea 6, Valencia 6, Smalling 7, Jones 7, Young 6, Herrera 6, Matic 6, Mata 7, Lingard 7, Rashford 6, Lukaku 8 / Subs: McTominay 6, Martial 6, Rojo 5

Reaction

It was all things Lukaku after the full time whistle this afternoon