Magic moment for Moussa

If ever a picture painted a thousand words – it’s the one above, as Moussa Sissoko celebrates a first on a few counts by scoring against Bournemouth on Saturday.

The popular midfielder provided the finish to a lightning counter-attack, volleying home mid-air after being picked out by Heung-Min Son. That made it 3-0 after Dele’s double and although Bournemouth staged a late comeback, the points stayed at home.

Signed from Newcastle in the summer of 2016 and now approaching 150 appearances for us, this was Moussa’s third goal for the Club and, more pointedly, his first at the new stadium.

“I showed everyone that I used to be a striker before!” said a delighted Moussa. “No, I joke! It was a good finish and a great cross from Sonny. I saw him run down the side, so I said to myself I need to meet him in the box, I was focussed on that and scored the goal.

“I’m so happy to score my first goal in this amazing stadium because I’ve been waiting for that for a long time. You could see I was very happy, the fans and my team-mates as well.”

Once again, the sound of 60,000 fans singing ‘oh Moussa Sissoko...’ was music to his ears. He added: “It’s always something amazing when you have the fans singing your name.

"Like I said, they were waiting for my goal since last year, so I would like to say thanks to them for everything and I’m very happy with that, hopefully I can score more goals for the team, for the fans and for myself, of course.”

The victory moved us up to fifth in the Premier League with back-to-back 3-2 wins against West Ham and Bournemouth, plus our midweek Champions League win against Olympiacos making it three out of three for Jose Mourinho.

“We tried to play, tried to go forward, tried to create chances and score goals,” reflected Moussa. “We did it and did it well.

“We’re a little disappointed with the end of the game because it was a lack of concentration and we conceded two goals, the same against West Ham. We need to work on that and focus for 95 or 96 minutes. Apart from that, it was a great afternoon for everyone.”