Fantastic First Halves

Saturday's fantastic 4-1 win against Leicester City was the first match to feature four first-half goals from Manchester United since 1 December 2012.

The last time the Reds were so prolific before the interval was when Reading were defeated 4-3 at the Madejski Stadium but as you can read below, that was a very different kind of contest which was far from under United's complete control.

24 September 2016, United 4 Leicester 1
The Reds went 1-0 up when Chris Smalling headed home a Daley Blind corner in the 22nd minute. Just fifteen minutes later the lead was doubled, as Juan Mata finished off a delightful 18-pass move that included some wonderful work from Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard. Mata was again involved in United’s third strike, with Blind playing a quick short corner to the Spaniard, whose low cross was tapped in by the onrushing Marcus Rashford. The fourth and final goal of the opening 45 minutes came from another corner and once more Blind provided the delivery - when it met the head of Pogba, the Frenchman skilfully directed the ball past Ron-Robert Zieler into the Leicester net.

1 December 2012, Reading 3 United 4
This memorable match at the Madejski Stadium resulted in an astonishing seven goals being scored in the first half – still a Premier League record. The Royals took the lead through Hal Robson-Kanu, only for a rare Anderson effort and Wayne Rooney's penalty to put United 2-1 up. Adam Le Fondre and Sean Morrison restored Reading's ascendancy at 3-2 but another Rooney strike gave Robin van Persie the platform to net the seventh and final goal, with 11 minutes still to play in the first period. Crazy stuff.

10 April 2007, United 7 Roma 1
Prior to the Leicester victory, the Reds last scored four goals in the first half at Old Trafford when the famous stadium staged one of its greatest-ever European matches. Going into the game 2-1 down from the first leg, United had work to do in order to reach the Champions League semi-finals - and how that work was done! Michael Carrick, Alan Smith, Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo all netted before half-time; Carrick and Ronaldo bagged again after the break with Patrice Evra also on target to complete an 8-3 aggregate win.

20 August 2006, United 5 Fulham 1
Until the Foxes were swept aside on Saturday, this was when United last hit the net four times in the first half of a home Premier League game. The opening day of the 2006/07 season could not have started much better - strikes from Louis Saha, Rooney and Ronaldo plus an own goal from Ian Pearce put the Reds 4-0 up after just 19 minutes. Although Rio Ferdinand scored at the wrong end, also before half-time, the second period was really just a formality with Rooney wrapping up the 5-1 win shortly after the hour mark. The result set the tone for United's league form in what proved to be a title-winning campaign.