Mason Mount’s magnificent effort and a first Old Trafford goal for Benjamin Sesko secured Manchester United a 2-0 victory against Sunderland that helps ease the pressure on Ruben Amorim.

The under-fire Portuguese head coach headed into his 50th match as Red Devils boss in the spotlight after last weekend’s bruising 3-1 loss at Brentford.

But Amorim’s side responded well in wet and windy conditions against promoted Sunderland, with first-half goals from Mount and Sesko sealing a much-needed victory before the international break.

Asked about a public show of support from Mount, the United boss told reporters after the game: “I saw (that) today and I know they want to do their best – and I know they don’t want to change the coach all the time.

“But, like I said during this week, to be with the manager is ‘I will kill myself to go in every transition’. We need to show with actions.

“And sometimes when we look at our team I know for sure that when we see the games in the end they know that sometimes we can do better.

“So, I feel that during the week but we need to show that on the pitch, not just at home but also away.”

Sunderland meanwhile won’t be too worried by their start to the season despite the defeat, heading into the second international break of the season in the top half of the table with 11 points from their first seven games.

“They [United] scored twice then after that it became another game,” Regis Le Bris told BBC.

“We changed our shape to make a one-v-one game, it was a bit chaotic but at least we were back in the game. We were not strong enough to create chances today, only at the end.”

The Black Cats thought they had a route back into the game when a penalty was given for what appeared to be a kick to Trai Hume’s face, only for VAR to intervene as replays showed minimal contact. But that was not the only moment of controversy in and around the United box.

Ref watch react to Bertrand Traore's yellow card for diving

Bertrand Traore made his first start for Sunderland since joining from Ajax in a £2.5m move this summer, and charged through on goal before being sandwiched between debutant goalkeeper Senne Lammens and Bruno Fernandes.

While it would have certainly been a soft penalty, referee Stuart Attwell went beyond just ignoring the shouts from the Burkina Faso international and booked him for simulation.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ ref watch show on Monday morning, former PGMOL man Dermot Gallagher revealed Attwell should have taken the third option: do nothing.

“I have a bit of a theory about this, that sometimes the third option, the third option is do nothing. You look at it, is it a penalty? No. Is it a DOGSO? No. Is it a dive? I don’t think so because I don’t see what the player can do.

“If the game goes on, nobody would really mind, everyone would accept it.”