NANI SIGNS

After much speculation about his future, Nani finally signed a new contract with Manchester United to extend his spell at the club. He played an influential role in the 2-1 win over Sunderland last weekend.

This match could have easily been yet another disaster for new United manager David Moyes, who is struggling since taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer. However, two goals from teenager Adnan Januzaj helped United take all three points. They will be having another difficult encounter in the form of a home match against Southampton after the international break.

Southampton have made a great start to the season and are extremely difficult to score against. Despite this, Nani is confident that United will be able to improve after the end of this international break. Nani provided the cross for Januzaj to score the second goal against Sunderland. The poor form of Antonio Valencia is likely to mean a start for Nani against Southampton. After his exploits against Sunderland, teenager Januzaj is likely to start in the next match as well. United are already several points behind table leaders Arsenal and they cannot afford to lose any more points if they are to win the title.

“It was a good win for us. We had a really good performance after being unlucky to lose a goal so early on. Phil Jones tried to block and it came off Vida [Nemanja Vidic] and just bounced for them. We knew it was always difficult to come to Sunderland to play but we’ve had some very good results in this stadium as well. We knew we had to play better than we did in the first half and we just had to find the right moments to come back,” said Nani, who has so far made four league appearances this season.