Manchester United 2-1 Sunderland: 5 players to be credited for United's victory

David De Gea

A game-changing moment in the match was De Gea’s quite brilliant save to prevent Giaccherini from putting Sunderland 2-0 ahead. Adam Johnson picked out the Italian with a good cross whose bullet header was heading into the back of the net before it was met by a strong one-handed punch from United’s Spanish stopper.

Had that goal gone in, United may have found it too steep a mountain to climb to get back in the match.

He had a good game all-round and was commanding with the aerial balls thumped in by Sunderland as well. That apart, he excelled once again with his distribution, putting in six accurate long balls out to his forwards and midfield players.

Edited by Staff Editor