Henrikh Mkhitaryan claims second Man of the Match title in a week

PanARMENIAN.Net - Man of the Match Henrikh Mkhitaryan was delighted with his own and the team’s performance as Manchester United brushed aside West Ham United in Wednesday, November 30’s EFL Cup quarter-final tie, the Manchester club's official website says.

After starring against Feyenoord, the Armenian captain earned his second star man award in a week – taking 78 per cent of the votes on United's official Twitter feed – with another positive display in the Reds’ 4-1 victory over the Hammers at Old Trafford.

The summer signing from Borussia Dortmund, who was making his third start for the Reds, received a rapturous applause from the United faithful when replaced by Marcus Rashford late on. And he told MUTV afterwards he was pleased with his contribution to a fine overall display from the team to set up a two-legged semi-final against fellow Premier League side Hull City.

“I’m excited for the performance, I’m excited for my performance,” Mkhitaryan said. “We’ve done a good job. We’ve tried our best to win because the last game, on Sunday against West Ham, wasn’t very good for us when we didn’t win. But I think this time everything worked out and we’re very pleased.”

The Reds have often reserved the best form for the cup competitions on home soil having also put four past both Feyenoord and Fenerbahce, as well as knocking out EFL Cup holders Manchester City in the previous round, at Old Trafford. And Mkhitaryan believes the clinical edge was the difference in putting Slaven Bilic’s Hammers to the sword second time around – something the Reds must maintain heading into Sunday’s league game at Goodison Park.

He said: “The last game we couldn’t score our chances, but now we’ve scored our chances so the difference is that. This time we’ve done maybe more than what we have to do and we’ve scored four goals. Maybe we could score more but in the end we stopped on four goals and I think we’ve done a very good game and the transition from defence to offence was great. We have to keep working to be ready for the next game against Everton.”

The 27-year-old was a constant menace to the West Ham defence, setting up a goal apiece for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Anthony Martial, but he acknowledged the team’s efforts and said it was a performance which can allow the Reds to kick on as the busy festive period approaches.

“Sometimes after the game you’re feeling tired but it’s a very good tired because you’ve done everything on the pitch and you’re satisfied with the work you’ve done on the pitch, so I think this is the day that everyone is tired but satisfied,” Mkhitaryan added.

“Of course, it’s always a pleasure to win games because you’re recovering faster, you’re recovering better, you have more fun in the dressing room so it makes you keep the good atmosphere in the dressing room which is what we’re trying to do.”

Jose Mourinho heaped praise on Mkhitaryan after the midfielder’s man-of-the-match display against West Ham and hinted the attacker will start Sunday’s clash against Everton.

"I’m so happy today because today was against a Premier League team, with Premier League qualities and Premier League characteristics," said Mourinho.

"That showed clearly is a relation because against Feyenoord, where we could think okay it’s a different profile of football.

"But today was against a proper and a typical Premier League team and Mikhi could perform this way.

"So we are really happy because we know the reason why we bought him and we were waiting for his adaptation to the English game and it looks like it’s coming."