Manchester United enjoyed a comfortable evening at Old Trafford as they saw off Stoke 3-0.
Wonder strikes from Antonio Valencia and Anthony Martial put Jose Mourinho's side two goals to the good at the break on a wet and windy evening in the north west.
And Romelu Lukaku rounded off the scoring after the break to close the gap at the top of the Premier League table to 12 points as United bid to hunt down Manchester City.
Paul Pogba shone for the Red Devils as they pulled clear of Liverpool and Chelsea to claim second place outright.
LINE UPS
Manchester United: De Gea, Valencia, Jones, Smalling, Shaw, Matic, Pogba, Mata, Lingard, Martial, Lukaku.
Subs: Pereira, Lindelof, Rojo, Fellaini, Herrera, McTominay, Rashford
Stoke: Butland, Bauer, Zouma, Martins Indi, Tymon, Fletcher, Allen, Shaqiri, Ireland, Choupo-Moting, Crouch
Subs: Grant, Wimmer, Afellay, Adam, Diouf, Ramadan, Edwards.
Jose Mourinho used the opportunity of a rare few days off to take his squad for a warm weather training camp and they arrived back in Manchester in good spirits.
United won their first two games of the calendar year, away to Everton and at home against Derby County in the FA Cup, and made it a hat-trick against Stoke - who have just announced the appointment of Paul Lambert as their new manager.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was left out of the squad amid United's transfer interest in Alexis Sanchez, after Mourinho said he would 'probably' figure against the Potters.
Paul Pogba, David de Gea and Nemanja Matic started the game, while Antonio Valencia returned to the team after recovering from injury and marked his return with a brilliant goal.
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