Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial dazzle as Manchester United make light work of Burton in EFL Cup

Manchester United know the rest of their EFL Cup campaign will not prove this easy, but Jose Mourinho will be glad that his attempt to defend the trophy for the first time enjoyed the simplest possible start against Championship outfit Burton Albion. A brace from Marcus Rashford within the first 20 minutes took the game away from Nigel Clough’s spirited but limited visitors, who were second-best from the first to the last whistle.

Anthony Martial, who set up Jesse Lingard for the third before scoring United’s fourth, had a particularly fine evening and, like several of his team-mates, played as though he was truly enjoying himself against decidedly inferior opposition. Such was their dominance, United chose when to take their foot off the pedal too, easing through the second half and into the fourth round draw, albeit after Lloyd Dyer's stoppage-time consolation for the visitors.

The last time United failed to reach the fourth round of this competition a Louis van Gaal side were trounced 4-0 by MK Dons, but Mourinho’s players quickly made sure that they would suffer no such embarrassment here.

After just five minutes, club captain Michael Carrick, making his first appearance of the season, found Lingard in the penalty area with an incisive pass. The winger turned and touched the ball in one movement to lay off Rashford, who applied a simple finish past goalkeeper Connor Ripley. It was child’s play.

The second was even simpler and it came from the teenager again. Taking the ball in the inside-left channel around 25 yards out, he turned and under minimal pressure from Tom Flanagan drove an effort inside Ripley’s right-hand post. Rashford, now with five in his last five, celebrated with the confidence of a player who knew he was superior to every yellow shirt up against him.

Already, with barely 20 minutes played, the contest appeared to have ended but Burton’s brightest moment of the first half was just around the corner. Victor Lindelof, a shaky presence in the centre of United’s defence even when up against the Championship’s 19th-placed side, was too easily beaten by visiting captain Luke Varney. The winger squared for Joe Mason, but the Burton frontman failed to lift the ball over a diving Sergio Romero.

It was a warning against complacency for United, who proceeded to search for the third goal that would surely wrap up proceedings before half-time. Mata thought he had found it but Ripley did well to turn the Spaniard’s effort against the base of the upright. Darmian crossed from the rebound for Martial, but the Frenchman’s spectacular overhead kick deflected off a defender for a corner.

The third eventually came but only after yet more dazzling play from Martial, who recovered from a slip to bamboozle Hope Akpan and tee up Lingard. Ripley appeared to have the effort covered but it took a wicked deflection off Ben Turner and trickled in.

Having named a fairly strong match day squad, with only five players present for Sunday’s win over Everton rested, Mourinho now had a lot of first-team players out on the pitch in a game that was all but won. The second half duly took on a more sedate pace.

Martial, however, carried on from where he had left off in the first half and cut the figure of a player truly enjoying himself. Not every flick and piece of intricate play he tried came off, and he spurned one golden chance to break his duck for the night by shooting straight at Ripley, but there was a sense that the goal he deserved was coming. On the hour mark, it finally came, with the former Monaco winger coolly finishing off a neat one-two with Rashford.

A sparsely-populated Old Trafford, with 54,256 in attendance, saw out the remaining half hour by shining the torches on their smartphones and only half-paying attention to the exhibition that the game had become. As if to compound the sense that all the significant action had been and gone, Mourinho needlessly replaced his second-choice goalkeeper Romero with third-choice Joel Pereira. If the idea was to give the young Portuguese player some much-needed practice, it worked.

In the single minute of time added-on, Pereira fumbled after the ball came down off the crossbar, allowing Dyer to crash a shot home from close-range. It was a moment to remember for the visiting supporters, but United's job had already been done.