Daniel James admitted he was thankful Marcus Rashford produced his miss of the season contender with Manchester United already 3-1 to the good.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side produced on of their most coherent attacking performances of the season to move up to seventh place in the table heading into the international break.
Andreas Pereira’s deflected effort and a Davy Propper’s own goal put the home side two ahead inside the opening 20 minutes, before Lewis Dunk hauled the visitors back into the contest just past the hour mark.
But Rashford made the game safe two minutes later following unselfish approach play from Anthony Martial, before he squandered an easy chance to extend the lead, somehow screwing his shot wide after he had been presented with an opening goal following a now customary electric burst of pace from James.
‘Marcus normally scores a lot of those goals, thankfully when he missed we were already 3-1 up,’ said the Wales international afterwards.
‘The high press paid off, that’s what we have been about all season, playing with energy right from the start.
‘We were a little bit edgy when they scored and it was good to score again on the break. But we could have scored also seven or eight goals.’
Solskjaer, meanwhile, reserved praise for Martial and teenage full-back Brandon Williams who impressed again at left-back in the absence of Luke Shaw.
The Norwegian said: ‘We should have scored many more goals.
‘It was an excellent performance from the lads, when you see them going forward it is a joy to watch.
‘Anthony Martial did not get a goal but he was outstanding. Brandon Williams was excellent too, he has had some good games already and he seems he wants to be out there and enjoy himself.
‘The table does not really matter at the moment: we need to keep improving and keep winning games and see where it takes us.’
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