The Serbian midfielder has reunited with Jose Mourinho in a £40m deal which was announced yesterday.

And Irwin believes Matic is exactly the type of player the Special One needed to add to his squad to be Premier League title contenders.

He said on talkSPORT: “I was a little bit surprised by the fact Chelsea are selling to their rivals who will be challenging for the Premier League next year.

“But Matic has done a fantastic job for Chelsea over the last few years and I suppose it was a bit of a thank you [to let him join United].

“Manchester United have got a tremendous player, a tremendous holding player, and they’ve needed somebody of that ilk.

“I think it’s a very good signing.”

Irwin thinks United now have a strong squad and will challenge for honours in Mourinho’s second season at Old Trafford.

He added: “Since Jose has come to the club, the seven players they’ve signed a lot of them are tall, physical players – players you need for the Premier League. There’s a good mixture of youth and experience too.

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“There’s great competition in the squad now, there’s a good mixture of midfielders and attackers and I think that the club will be close to challenging this year.

“They need to show more consistency and score more goals than last year, but they’re in a better position now to challenge with the squad they’ve got.

“Lukaku is a 25 goals-a-season striker, I expect Marcus [Rashford] to be even better this year and I see [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan improving a lot as well, so I expect to see more goals.

“I expect them to challenge [for the title] this year.”

Matic is United’s third summer signing following Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku to Old Trafford.

The Red Devils start the new campaign against West Ham on Sunday, August 13.