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This is post-matchday, not post-match. For measured opinion and different retrospection.

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Premier League Matchday 19

HT: Manchester United 0 (1) - 0 Middlesbrough

FT: Manchester United 2 (3) - 1 Middlesbrough

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Goals:

0-1 Leadbitter 67'

1-1 Martial 85'

2-1 Pogba 87'

Other Goals

1-0 Ibrahimovic 38'

Pogba Pass Watch

Torpedo

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Stats

Stat	Man Utd	Middlesbrough
Possession	66%	34%
Shots	32	9
On Target	12	2
Blocked	8	3
Corners	12	2
Offsides	5	0
Fouls	9	14
Passing %	87%	73%
Attacking Third %	79%	58%

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Man of the Match

Paul Pogba (BBC)
Anthony Martial (Official)

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Premier League Table

-	Team	Played	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points	Form
1	Chelsea	19	16	1	2	42	13	29	49	WWWWW
2	Liverpool	19	13	4	2	46	21	25	43	DWWWW
3	Man City	19	12	3	4	39	21	18	39	LWWWL
4	Arsenal	18	11	4	3	39	19	20	37	WWLLW
5	Spurs	18	10	6	2	33	13	20	36	WLWWW
6	Man United	19	10	6	3	29	19	10	36	WWWWW

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Links

Match Thread

Post-Match Thread

Post-Match Interviews (Jose, David de Gea, Paul Pogba)

Post-Match Press Conference (Jose)

BBC Report

Highlights/Full Match Download or Watch Online

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Next Match: West Ham (A) - KO 17:15 BST, Monday 2nd January - PL

Following 5 Matches: Reading* (H), Hull City** (H), Liverpool (H), Stoke City (A), Hull City ** (A)

* FA Cup
** EFL Cup

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Some Thoughts

• 5 wins on the bounce! Only problem is other teams aren't dropping very many points either. Top 4 is going to be very difficult this year (something we have known for a while now) but this kind of game was crucial to get 3 points from. Earlier in the season we may have drawn or even lost it but yesterday something felt different. Pogba, Mkhi, Ibra have all been in good form for a while and now...

• ...Martial hits top-form. Hopefully he can continue that on now because yesterday he was unplayable. He was dribbling through everyone at speed, floating in nice crosses and almost always beating his man. MoTD did a nice little piece summing up his game but he was very impressive and a major factor behind our drive to win the game.

• On another note and one I don't like to mention too often; the referee. Hopefully because we won this won't be seen as sour grapes but Lee Mason was just terrible yesterday. Ignoring the disallowed goal, he made mind-boggling decisions through-out. Here for example, I'm unsure what Smalling was supposed to do. He won the ball back, jumped over a late sliding tackle to avoid getting hurt and knocked into the 'Boro player there. If you're going to blow, surely that's a foul on Smalling because of the late tackle? Later on,'Boro player grabs Rojo to try to stop him taking the quick throw. Lee Mason sees that but decides it isn't worthy of a yellow card? Here Martial is caught by a pretty painful late tackle in the box, not even a word from Mason. Nothing will happen to him though, no punishment and no extra measures to try to help out referees. It isn't just Lee Mason though,I think we can all agree that referees need some kind of extra help. The game is just too fast for them now.

• On a second negative note; Smalling was not overly impressive yesterday. I don't think Mourinho particularly rates him and I don't think he covered himself in glory yesterday, he seemed to get caught in no man's land for their goal and there seemed to be no communication between Smalling, Herrera and Bailly over who would take who - something you'd expect your senior CB to be doing. Maybe I'm being harsh on him?

• Anyway let's leave it with positivity. Mkhi, Pogba and Ibra seem to be gelling well together and if Martial can keep up his form we'd have a pretty scary attack. Herrera started off slow but got back to what he did best (high energy, keep the ball moving) and Carrick learnt that in actual fact, it can be too cold for ice-creams. We could do with Spurs and Arsenal dropping points today though because we're staying tantalisingly out of reach of Top 4 right now. I'll take it though, got a whole second half of the season to come.

p.s. Happy New Year all