It took six minutes. Six minutes for Juan Mata to demonstrate his worth to Manchester United, six minutes for him to link, albeit circuitously, with Robin van Persie and conjure a goal at Old Trafford.
This being the David Moyes edition of the champions, however, it was not until close to an hour later that they could begin to feel safe against the Premier League’s bottom club, thanks to a cracking goal by Ashley Young.
Even so, baby steps, baby steps. By the time Mata began tiring late in the game — the odd mistimed tackle here, a rare misplaced pass there, replaced by Adnan Januzaj after 85 minutes — few were in any doubt that they had seen the debut of a future United great. Mind you, they have been starved of the usual good news around here of late.
Mata was not brilliant but he was most definitely an upgrade, and better than expected, having played no football for close to a month. He needs to be in top gear by the time of the visit to Arsenal on February 12, but the pass which set up United’s first goal will earn him considerable credit in these parts.
Mata collected the ball from the defence, deeper than a conventional No 10, but immediately demonstrated a counter-attacking instinct that fits in perfectly with the ethos of his new club. A perfect crossfield pass to Patrice Evra and United were away.
Evra’s cross was headed against the bar by Luis Antonio Valencia and the ball ricocheted around the area as United scrambled to convert. Out it came and was followed up by Van Persie, whose effort was saved by David Marshall; out it came and it was followed up by Van Persie, whose header, second time, gave the goalkeeper no chance.
So it wasn’t an assist, or even the assist for an assist, but had Mata not applied his singular vision to the build-up, United would not have been able to play with a safety net for so long; and those little securities are important these days.
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