Three surprise stats from Swansea vs Man United

Manchester United went some way to arresting their poor league form with a solid 3-1 win over Swansea City on Sunday. The Red Devils had previously only won one of their last seven Premier League games.

A brace from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and superb volley from world-record signing Paul Pogba meant the game was tied up before the teams went in at the break.

Despite Swansea’s Mike van Der Hoorn pulling a goal back late on, Jose Mourinho’s side still recorded a comfortable victory.

The result also made the league table look slightly more favourable at the end of play. United leapfrogged Everton and Watford – who had both lost heavily – and gained ground on the top teams as Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur all dropped points.

We take a look at three surprising statistics from the game.

UNITED SCORED MORE WITH LESS SHOTS

In their last few games, United had taken a large number of shots with little success.

The Red Devils recorded 38 in total against Burnley and failed to score, while they managed 16 against Chelsea – two more than their opponents – yet still lost 4-0.

Against Swansea, they only took nine shots yet managed three goals as they scored from every effort on target. Zlatan Ibrahimovic took both his chances despite previously requiring 35 shots in the six games he failed to score in.

DARMIAN PUTS IN MOST CROSSES

As a naturally right-footer playing on the opposite side, you would expect Matteo Darmian to struggle to put in any crosses.

It came as a surprise, therefore, that the Italian got forward and put in the most crosses of any United player. Darmian put in five crosses with two finding a teammate – exactly the same as Swansea’s chief creator Gylfi Sigurdsson.

A few more performances like that and Luke Shaw may struggle to regain his place.

ROONEY HITS ASSISTS LANDMARK



Wayne Rooney has endured a lot of criticism this season and not many expected to see him named in the starting lineup.

The 31-year-old started wide on the left – a position he’s previously struggled in – and had a productive game, setting up both of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s goals.

That contribution makes him only the third player reach 100 Premier League assists, after Ryan Giggs and Frank Lampard.