It was a highly entertaining weekend of fixtures in the English Premier League as Manchester United and Bournemouth shared seven goals, there were two vital wins for London’s most successful football teams and neither of this season’s challengers in the title race had it all their own way.

Manchester United 5-2 Bournemouth

A crazy game at Old Trafford ended in a seven-goal thriller that could have seen way more strikes hit the back of both nets than it actually did. From the kick-off, United were as exciting going forward as they were ramshackle at the back. It was The Cherries who drew first blood, scoring at the far post through Junior Stanislas as Victor Lindelof, captain Harry Maguire and David De Gea all had chances to block the speculative near-post effort at various stages of the ball squirming through United’s leaky backline.

In recent weeks, United have been as solid at the back as they have been reliable at the top of the pitch. They needed to up the attacking pressure on Bournemouth to an even greater degree than usual, but while in previous seasons, that may have been a task that posed more problems than were surmountable, this time around United were home and dry by half-time.