FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 3, Forest 0
The Premier League? Remember that? It had been 44 days since United’s last league game – only one day less than Liz Truss’s premiership. It had been 58 days since the last home league game (against West Ham). And the star players had had a lot on their plates in that time: United had 14 representatives in the World Cup quarter-finals, more than any other club. For the visit of Forest, the World Cup conspired with the winter lurgy to force Erik ten Hag to field a patchwork defence. Yet United took up exactly where they had left off, stretching their run of home wins to six, and playing more joined-up football than they had against Burnley. Since the horror start to Ten Hag’s time, they have won nine games out of 13 in the league – a vast improvement on last season’s 16 out of 38. In the form table, which covers the last six matches for each club, United are now third, just above City.
Forest were swept aside by five minutes of magic from United’s form players. First Christian Eriksen sent a clever corner skimming across the sodden turf for Marcus Rashford to break free from the pack and whip it into the top corner. Then Casemiro pulled off a fine sliding tackle on the edge of United’s box and started a move that brought the best out of Bruno Fernandes, chipping a through ball down the line to Rashford. He cut in and played a simple square pass to Anthony Martial, whose crisp first-time shot through the legs of a defender was too much for Wayne Hennessey, standing in for Dean Henderson in the Forest goal. Rashford and Martial, both so lost last season, are now enjoying purple patches. Every goal they score is a rap on the knuckles for Ralf Rangnick – and a reason not to get angsty in the transfer window.
Not content with a goal and an assist, Rashford also played the pass of the night. Racing down the left on the counter, he jinked inside and hit a long, diagonal, laser-guided ball to Fernandes, who unselfishly slipped it on to Antony. It was the sort of pass that could easily have come from Eriksen or Casemiro. Excellence is catching.
Casemiro was magnificent, whether in defence, in attack or in between. When he is there, with Varane behind him, United have a core of such calm and class that it doesn’t much matter who fits in around them. With Varane on the field this season, United’s goal difference in the league is 13-5 (and one of those five, by Erling Haaland, was scored when Varane was lying on the floor injured); without him, it’s 10-15, so he, more than anyone, is the difference between a top side and a mediocre one. Luke Shaw did well as a makeshift centre-back, but against a team as goal-shy as Forest, it would surely have made more sense to blood Rhys Bennett, who showed in leading United to the FA Youth Cup that he is about as Varane-like as a teenager can be.
United played so well that it was easy to miss the one man who is right out of form: Antony. That delicious debut against Arsenal feels a long time ago now. He seems to be suffering from second-season syndrome while still less than halfway through his first one. He kept passing to Forest players, a policy he even maintained when Fernandes handed him that gift-wrapped chance and he hit a tame shot straight at Hennessey. Antony was lucky to stay on the pitch for as long as 64 minutes. It was good to hear Ten Hag mention Facundo Pellistri the other day. He’s a forgotten man – still to make his United debut after two years. But he’s good enough to have won ten caps for Uruguay, and if he’s not ahead of Antony in the pecking order now, it’s hard to see what he is there for.
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re still on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.