Romelu Lukaku scored his third goal in his fourth appearances as Manchester United moved back to 11 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City with Sunday’s 2-1 win at West Brom.
Man United who are placed in the second position have now won six of their last seven Premier League games, but last weekend’s 2-1 derby defeat at home to rivals City who thrashed Spurs on Saturday to make it 16 successive league victories means their title hopes remain remote.
Lukaku scored a goal in the 27 minute against the club where he scored his first Premier League goals.The Belgium striker got between two defenders to score a superb header from a left-wing cross Marcus Rashford.
The second goal came 8 minutes later and ultimately proved decisive, as Ahmed Hegazi trying to block a Jesse Lingard drive from the edge of the box but only succeeding in deflecting the ball past Ben Foster.
Rashford went close to extending the lead but United’s failure to close the match with a third goal almost proved costly when Gareth Barry scrambled home from a 77 minute Chris Brunt corner, although Jose Mourinho’s men held on.
Oliver Burke on his first Premier League start was stopped by a tremendous Chris Smalling tackle before Salomon Rondon saw a near post effort well blocked.
And with their second shot on target of the game, United seemingly put the game beyond West Brom Albion.
Juan Mata teed up Lingard on the edge of the box, with the England midfielder’s strike giving former United goalkeeper Foster no chance after taking a massive deflection off Hegazi.
United seemed to be cruising to their ninth win in 12 matches to West Brom, but G.Barry gave hosts their first goal in four matches under Alan Pardew’s leadership from a set piece with 13 minutes to go.