Bournemouth 0-2 Manchester United; 5 Key Talking Points

Scorers:

Chris Smalling 28' (tap-in from Jesse Lingard assist, Ander Herrera wonderful pre-assist); Romelu Lukaku 70' (lovely finish after surging run and assist from Paul Pogba)

A routine 2-0 win saw Manchester United climb to a comfortable 4 points ahead of 3rd place Liverpool - showing that the mob asking for Jose Mourinho's head may be just that, an unruly mob - in what was essentially an audition for the FA Cup Semifinal come Saturday (all due respect to The Cherries).

#5 Manchester United almost achieve revised target no.1

AFC Bournemouth v Manchester United - Premier League — The ever-expressive Mourinho watches on as his team go about doing their job

“All of them were professional and responsible. The first ambition was to finish in the top four and now one point is probably enough. When we have that resolved we can think about third and second place.”

After sitting through the 90 minutes like he was an Engineering student who'd accidentally strayed into Economics 101, Mourinho sounded positively cheerful in the post-match interview. One more point from the four remaining games will seal Champions League football for next season - and downgraded as it is that's the first basic KRA that's been met by the Portuguese.

They should finish second if they continue playing with this professionalism - and with Mourinho drawing his knives out, there's no reason anybody in the team should give anything less than a 100%

#4 Callum Wilson looking back to his best

Those who've tuned in to watch the Cherries recently would scoff at the suggestion. But before two Cruciate Ligament injuries in quick succession kept him out for 189 and 260 days respectively, Callum Wilson was on the verge of cracking into the English national team - he had everything, pace, strength, immense finishing, but a Cruciate Ligament is a cruel, cruel injury and he's looked barely a shadow of his former self.

This season, he's progressively improved - and it took some robust defending from Phil Jones, and seemingly illegal defending from Luke Shaw to prevent him from scoring today... his movement was on point, he showed glimpses of his great twin attributes of strength and speed, and if he can continue in this vein Bournemouth will have a truly brilliant striker at their disposal.

#3 Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera, Marcus Rashford respond to their manager's challenge

Jose Mourinho made things very clear after United's comically inept performance against West Bromwich Albion - he'd had enough. He'd had enough of seeing his players ghost walk through games and he'd had enough of them over-complicating things.

Atleast part of that problem was addressed against Bournemouth - "Everything was faster, everything was simple. The players were good. I think good team performance was professional, controlled - a good effort. Desire to play, to score, desire to cope with the defensive responsibilities.”

A 2-0 win can do wonders to a man's mood, eh?

In truth, United were more dully efficient than anything else, controlling the game but doing not all that much with the ball... one of Mourinho's statements post the West Brom debacle had been to tell his players there were on audition for Saturday's FA Cup semi tonight, and if he were to take it seriously, only Messrs Pogba, Herrera, and Rashford made a rock-solid case for their inclusion come Wembley day.

Herrera was his all-biting, all-action, all-everything self, Pogba was superb, and Rashford was dogged, determined, and brutally direct - all qualities that Mourinho deeply admires in his players.

As for the ones under special scrutiny - an on-off Marouane Fellaini, an unimpressive Luke Shaw, a mercurial Anthony Martial, and a hopeless Matteo Darmian - it's not looking so good.

#2 Have Bournemouth hit a plateau?

This is a discussion that shouldn't limit itself to the 100-200 words that a Talking Point generally consists of, but let's get the ball rolling shall we?

Last season the Cherries - continuing their stunning year-on-year improvement under Eddie Howe - finished 9th, this year it's likely to be anywhere between 11th and 15th... considering the financial restrictions they have relative to those around them, and the obvious squad limitations that brings with it, this is still an exceptional job.

But should the Cherries be satisfied with that? There is nothing wrong with it, of course... and Eddie Howe's men play some of the most aesthetically pleasing football in the land; but have they reached their natural plateau... or do they have it in them to raise above the rest and have a real crack at The Establishment?

#1 Is there really a rift between Mourinho and Pogba?

"I’m not very good on man of the match, I’m not a big fan of it, but Paul Pogba played very well. Against Man City he was phenomenal but today he was very, very good.“ All he's been asking for is consistency... after the City match, Mourinho told the world press that he'd told Pogba the only thing he wanted from him was consistency - not two-goal, City-smashing performances every week, but consistently good performances.

He was not the worst against West Brom, but his early subbing off (with the scores still level) led to a rebirth of that ol' rumour, Pogba and Mourinho don't see eye-to-eye.But is it really the case?

Pogba is not a Mourinho-type player, that's evident to the blindest eye, but what should be equally evident is that the Portuguese has been making alterations in his strategy for the past two seasons to make allowances for just that - and it's not unreasonable that he expects Pogba to adjust back. In fact, in most professions, we'd consider a boss expecting an employee to meet him half-way very generous.

There might still be strains in the relationship - but both respect each other (see Mourinho slamming Paul Scholes to protect his player, see Pogba's comments about his manager) and they know that with each other their common goal is more easily achievable.

Maybe we shouldn't buy into the rumour mongering, eh?

Edited by Anirudh Menon