Manchester United Defeat Sunderland to Keep Top-4 Hopes Alive

Manchester United moved within four points of the Premier League's top four on Sunday as they comfortably dispatched 10-man Sunderland 3-0 at the Stadium of Light. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring in the first half before Sebastian Larsson received a controversial red card shortly before half-time.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan netted United's second from the restart without Sunderland even touching the ball, and Marcus Rashford wrapped things up late on in a match in which United never had to get out of second gear.

United—who started with Sergio Romero in place of goalkeeper David De Gea because of an unspecified problem—controlled the opening exchanges and had plenty of possession in the hosts' half without particularly threatening.

The Red Devils' first real opportunity came after 28 minutes, when Jesse Lingard charged through the centre of the Sunderland defence and forced a smart save from Jordan Pickford. 

The visitors were ahead just over a minute later, though, when Ibrahimovic received the ball from Ander Herrera and turned Billy Jones on the edge of the area before picking out the bottom corner. As Rob Dawson of the Manchester Evening News noted, the Swede had done little before his flash of genius:

United could have doubled their tally soon after when the excellent Luke Shaw delivered a tremendous first-time cross to Marouane Fellaini, but the Belgian failed to turn it home from close range. 

The Black Cats threatened for the first time with five minutes remaining in the first half when Victor Anichebe escaped Eric Bailly to unleash an effort on goal, but Romero proved equal to it with a strong save.

Sunderland's afternoon would worsen before half-time, though, when Larsson was dismissed for a somewhat reckless challenge on Herrera, though he was perhaps unfortunate not to receive only a yellow given how little contact there was with the United man.

Stu Forster/Getty Images

Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News and Match of the Day host Gary Lineker disagreed on whether a red card was deserved:

The match was essentially over as a contest by the break, but it was doubly so within a minute of the restart, as Mkhitaryan picked up the ball from Shaw on the left side of the area before rifling home a low effort into the far corner.

Jermain Defoe lashed an effort over and Javier Manquillo tested Romero with a half-volley, but Sunderland rarely troubled their opponents for the remainder.

Rashford rounded out the scoring with in the last minute after exchanging passes with Ibrahimovic on the right.

Stu Forster/Getty Images

United are four points behind Manchester City with a game in hand, and they're due to face City later in April—the derby is likely to have a significant impact on which team finishes in the UEFA Champions League places.

As for Sunderland, they remain rooted to the bottom of the table, 10 points behind 17th-placed Hull City. While they have a game in hand on the Tigers, they've failed to score in over 11 hours of Premier League football, and it's difficult to see them coming close to survival.

Post-Match Reaction

As reported by Sam Lightle of Sunderland's official website, Black Cats manager David Moyes was disappointed with the result:

"

It is very disappointing that we have not taken anything from the game.

There were some mitigating circumstances for it as well and because of that we lost. I don't want to shout about that [decision to send Seb off] but things didn't go for us today.

We had gone a goal down which from my point of view was a poor goal to concede. We didn't get tight enough when Ibrahimovic cut inside and because of that we were chasing it.

"

Per BBC Radio Manchester's Bill Rice, United boss Jose Mourinho hailed Ibrahimovic's impact as he reflected on the match:

According to Rice, Mourinho added: "We want to fight in the Premier League until it is mathematically impossible. The Premier League we cannot win, but the UEFA Europa League we can."