Bruno Fernandes already a big hit at Manchester United

If Paul Pogba leaves in the coming months, Manchester United already have a midfield entertainer in place to spearhead a rebuild.

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes is fouled by Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster, resulting in a penalty for Utd at Old Trafford. Picture: Getty Images

If Paul Pogba ends up leaving Old Trafford in the coming months, Manchester United already have the midfield entertainer in place to spearhead a rebuild.

Bruno Fernandes has only been at United a matter of weeks following his protracted transfer from Sporting Lisbon, but he is delivering the kind of wizardry and impudence from the playmaker role that United fans have been crying out for. The latest evidence came in a 3-0 win over Watford in the Premier League on Sunday night (AEDT) when all of Fernandes’ qualities were on show.

The way he sauntered up to a penalty kick, produced a little skip, and cheekily rolled his effort into the net spoke a lot about the confidence Fernandes already has.

He followed up that first goal for United with his second assist, setting up Mason Greenwood for the home side’s clinching third goal at Old Trafford. In between, it was Fernandes who sent through a precision pass that Anthony Martial latched onto before eventually scoring at the second attempt with a clever bit of play of his own.

That’s the thing about players like Fernandes: their quality quickly has an effect on others.

Indeed, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hailed the transformative impact Fernandes is having, all while Pogba – the club’s record signing – is out of the team, recovering from injury but also clearly unsettled.

“Very excited by having him in,” Solskjaer said of Fernandes. “He has come in, given everyone a boost, and wants to conduct a game.”

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Solskjaer said Fernandes was a mix between Paul Scholes and Juan Sebastian Veron – two silky, creative former United midfielders.

“It means more than just getting a player in,” he said. “You can see the supporters, they’re used to players with that personality, mentality and quality.”

Fernandes himself is talking about being at United to “conquer” the Premier League, which they haven’t done since 2013 – their last year under long-time manager Alex Ferguson.

That obviously won’t happen this season with United 35 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool, who are on the verge of winning the English title for the first time in 30 years.

But the future at least looks a lot brighter for United, who honoured one of its past greats before the game in a minute’s silence for Harry Gregg, a survivor of the 1958 air disaster in Munich who died recently. With this latest win, Solskjaer’s team jumped above Tottenham and Sheffield United into fifth place, which is currently a Champions League qualification position following UEFA’s imposition of a two-season ban from European competitions on second-place Manchester City for serious breaches of financial regulations.

United aren’t short of challengers for those final qualifying spots, though.

Having kept things relatively tight in the first games under new manager Mikel Arteta, Arsenal are starting to show some more attacking menace.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored two goals – leaving him tied on a league-leading 17 with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy – in a 3-2 home win over Everton, which followed a 4-0 victory over Newcastle at Emirates Stadium last weekend.

Arsenal are ninth but only four points behind fifth-place United.

Youngster Eddie Nketiah was again preferred up front to the more experienced Alexandre Lacazette and repaid the faith of Arteta by making it 1-1, cancelling out Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goal that was scored inside the first minute.

Richarlison scored on the stroke of halftime to make it 2-2, only for Aubameyang to regain the lead for Arsenal in the first minute of the second half, having already made it 2-1 in the 33rd.

With five goals in three days, Diogo Jota is hot property at Wolverhampton. Jota scored twice to add to the midweek hat-trick he got in the Europa League as Wolves beat bottom side Norwich 3-0. The Portugal forward also drove in a shot that struck the post before Raul Jimenez bundled home the loose ball for the third goal at Molineux.

AP