FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Chelsea 1, United 1
Casemiro has arrived. He was already everyone’s man of the match, for his calm command of the midfield. Then he scored the vital goal – and celebrated with some ferocity, to express the spirit in this team and endear himself to the fans even more. He is two midfielders in one, a destroyer who put in six tackles in the match, and a creator who made four shot-creating actions and did a bit of ghosting forward himself. Like his near-namesake, cashmere, he’s classy, comfortable, expensive but worth it. He’s a midfield general who is beginning to look like United’s next captain. Talking of which, it’s good to see Michael Carrick, the calmest and coolest of United’s recent caretakers, take over at Middlesbrough. He has it in him to be a great manager.
It was a bad weekend for the big names, as Boris Johnson was about to discover. Among the big six clubs, there was only one winner: Arsenal drew, Spurs lost at home, Liverpool lost to Forest. So United's result, as the visitors at Stamford Bridge, was the best after City’s. They always draw with Chelsea: this game was even 1-1 on xG at fbref.com. In the table since mid-August, United are now third. Top are Arsenal, with seven wins out of nine, and 22 points; second, two points behind, are City with six wins, a draw and two defeats – exactly the same as United. The only slight difference between the two is in the Goals For column, where City have run up a tennis score: 30-15. You and I know that United are nowhere near City’s league yet, but they have been quietly gathering good results against good teams. They’ve already played everyone in the top half of the table except the mighty Fulham, who are coming up on 13 November. For their next trick, United just need to remember how to batter a minnow.
The only weak link was Jadon Sancho. As so often, he didn’t make his presence felt at all. When he got the ball on the wing, he ended up taking four touches, then playing the safe pass back, or giving the ball away (alone among United’s starters, he had a lower passing accuracy than David de Gea). It’s hard to see the sense in starting him. If United want their best left-winger, it’s surely Marcus Rashford when he’s not needed up top. If they want a willing workhorse – Dan James with more finesse – it’s surely Anthony Elanga. If they want the player with the highest ceiling, it’s surely Alejandro Garnacho.
The defence did so well again. The only thing stopping them collecting a fourth clean sheet in a row was a penalty given away by a midfielder, Scott McTominay. They had to manage for half an hour without Rafa Varane, and they coped smoothly because Lisandro Martinez is a boss, Victor Lindelof is good enough, and both Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw are finding life easy. Shaw’s cross for Casemiro’s header – probably aimed at McTominay, who was second in the queue – was a little miracle of precision under pressure. Perhaps he could just show Dalot how not to blast the ball over to the far corner flag.
Erik ten Hag is building a proper team, piece by piece. They showed resilience again here, scoring in Fergie time. When the fourth official held up the board saying there would be six more minutes, Ten Hag cast off his inhibitions and roared them on himself. He out-thought Graham Potter, in the first half at least, and his team did him proud despite playing their third game in seven days. They could have done with Anthony Martial, to allow Rashford to replace Sancho on the left. But they didn’t miss anyone else. Cristiano who?
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.