FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Villa 2, United 2
United were much better – but still not good enough. They showed some intensity and urgency and dominated the first half-hour, but then they were over-run themselves. They went 2-0 up almost by default: both goals, well taken as they were, relied on Villa blunders. Once the second went in, all United had to do was keep calm and exert control – the one thing they had done well on Monday, seeing out the last 20 minutes against the same opponents. But this time they couldn’t manage it.
Or rather Ralf Rangnick couldn’t manage it. He had a really poor last half-hour. When United were flagging after pressing harder than usual, he sent on Jadon Sancho, who looked lost again, rather than Donny van de Beek, who had supplied the control on Monday, or Jesse Lingard, who had scored twice at Villa Park for West Ham in February. When van de Beek did emerge – in the 88th minute, alongside Lingard – it was, as so often, too late, though he came close to nicking a winner with a typical piece of improvisation in the box. With his game management, Rangnick was outplayed by Steven Gerrard, who used Philippe Coutinho superbly. It wasn’t really Villa who deprived United of two points: it was Liverpool.
Rangnick, to be fair, had done well beforehand. He tweaked the formation, playing a 4-3-3 with Nemanja Matic sitting deep on his own and Fred, United’s presser-in-chief, lining up next to Bruno Fernandes. That combination brought the second goal with a little help from Edinson Cavani, who, as Eric Laurie showed on Twitter, made a shrewd decoy run to give Fernandes more space. Rangnick had also got his selection right, taking the loss of Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford in his stride and seizing the chance to start Anthony Elanga. Just like on Monday, Elanga was instantly sparky: after three minutes, he had already won a corner and a free kick, and he combined well with Alex Telles, a Swede and a Brazilian speaking the same language. Elanga’s shooting wasn’t great, but the rest of his game – his pace and directness and quick decision-making – gave the whole team a lift. He played the way Rashford used to when he was a teenager. United’s challenge, as usual, is not bringing on young talent, but making full use of it later.
That forward line was classic United. A 34-year-old galactico, a 19-year-old unknown and a 20-year-old regular (Mason Greenwood) who already has 127 matches under his belt. If the two younger men had passed to the old warhorse more often, United would have romped home. As it is, they’re now in a dogfight to make the top six, never mind the top four. They have to win the two games left before the winter break, at Brentford and home to West Ham. The one glimmer of hope today was Chelsea’s defeat at Man City, which left the three-horse race at the top with only one and a half horses left in it (the half being Liverpool). Chelsea’s slump – one win in six in the league – has opened the door for United. If only they didn’t seem so determined to hold it open for Spurs and Arsenal.
The good news was that, for only the second time under Rangnick, United scored more than once. And the even better news was that both goals came from Fernandes. He’s back in business after scoring only once in the league in four months from the day of Cristiano Ronaldo’s comeback. Was it a coincidence that Ronaldo wasn’t there tonight? Surely not. One of the ways in which Fernandes resembles a striker is that he tends to get goals in clusters, so this may be the start of a purple patch. He was United’s best player, roaming at will and running the show for the first half-hour. But as the captain on the night, he has to take some of the blame for the team’s loss of composure. He gets too het up, picking fights with opponents and even refs, when he should be exuding calm assurance. Does anyone know the Portuguese for “statesmanlike”?