French midfielder returns to inspire Mourinho’s men

United’s most expensive signing of all time shows just why he is their best player

MANCHESTER: Paul Pogba crowned his return from injury by scoring and laying on an equaliser for Anthony Martial as Manchester United hit back to beat Newcastle United 4-1 on Saturday.

Chris Smalling was also on the mark in the first half, while Romelu Lukaku ended a drought of seven games without a goal.

To cap a perfect afternoon for the home team, who restored the eight-point gap separating them from Premier League leaders Manchester City, Zlatan Ibrahimovic also enjoyed a 13-minute run-out as a substitute.

United Manager Jose Mourinho admitted he felt emotional to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic return.

"The second half was ours," said Mourinho. "We had control, goals, beautiful actions and still time for a very emotional scene for all of us, who stayed close to such a professional with one of the biggest injuries in football. And so him coming back was a joy for everyone but for us close to him it was more than that, it was a big emotion to see the big guy back."

Pogba was sorely missed during his two-month absence and Mourinho is understandably glad to have him back. "He was top," said the United manager. "It looked like he was not out, he came back with a great performance, really great performance, he had great influence in the game. I agreed with him he had to make the decision of coming out at the first sign of fatigue because we don't want to go over the limit so he played a little bit more than an hour.”

There was more praise for the returning Frenchman. "He affects our football. When he was injured I decided to close my mouth, we cannot be crying, we have to find solutions that we have but we all know -- myself, and the fellow players -- that some players influence the level of the team.

"So with him we had much more creation, we have a second way out from the first phase and I'm so happy. Let's see the best decision for Wednesday."

Pogba celebrated wildly, on his way down the tunnel, when Lukaku scored the fourth goal after 70 minutes and Mourinho was equally pleased to see the Belgian return to goalscoring ways.

"Strikers like to score goals," he said. "It's not a problem for me if he works like he always does and doesn't score, but for their self-esteem and self-confidence they want to score goals. And he wasn't doing that for a few matches and I know that can affect striker's confidence, so I was really happy that he scored that goal."