West Ham 0 Manchester United 2: Five things we learnt as Zlatan Ibrahimovic picks up where he left off in 2016

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC hit the ground running in 2017 as he helped Manchester United down 10-man West Ham.

Super sub Juan Mata opened the scoring after the break with the Hammers still reeling from Sofiane Feghouli’s soft dismissal.

And a sub-par United sealed an important win despite a poor performance as Ibrahimovic crashed home from an offside position.

Ibracadabra

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC was cruelly denied a record-equalling 51st goal of 2016 as he was pinged for a high boot against Middlesbrough.

That decision paved the way for Lionel Messi to earn sole honours at the year’s highest goalscorer.

But Ibrahimovic is desperate to prove he still has more in the tank so his critics can “eat their balls” again.

And he set about proving it – albeit from an offside position – with a thumping finish to seal this game.

Sof dismissal kills game

MIKE DEAN – fresh off a torrent abuse for his performance in Southampton v Tottenham – had another game to forget.

The veteran ref sent off Sofiane Feghouli early in the first half after the West Ham man was beaten to the ball by Phil Jones.

Slaven Bilic was rightly incensed at the decision which most fans and pundits seem to agree was a yellow at best.

The world saved another dab

OLIVIER GIROUD may have goal of the year locked up already but the miss award is still up for grabs.

That was until Jesse Lingard somehow turned the ball onto the post after Antonio Valencia was brilliantly denied by Darren Randolph.

Rumours have it that Lingard is still working which dance move to celebrate with in 2017 – forcing him to skew his effort deliberately.

David still De man

UNITED could easily have lost this game if it weren’t for their Spanish stopper.

De Gea made a superb save to deny Manuel Lanzini at the end of the first half and was out quickly to deny a clean through Michail Antonio after 60 minutes.

In fact, the broken fax machine at Old Trafford may be the only challenge to the three-time winner’s dominance in the club’s Player of the Year award.

Coming up trumps when it Matas

JOSE MOURINHO cut a frustrated figure as United managed to turn 71 per cent possession into precious few chances following Feghouli’s dismissal.

But the Special One managed to inject some life into his team by replacing Matteo Dartmian with goalscorer Juan Mata at the break.