Young guns, having some fun
United have suddenly remembered how to score goals, and it's the youngest players who are leading the way
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 3, West Ham 0
Goals! Goals! Goals! Eleven of them in a week, from one Sunday teatime to the next – four at Newport, four at Molineux, and now three at home. Each game was a sterner test than the one before, and the goals kept on coming. Since Christmas, United have 19 goals in seven games in all competitions; before that, beginning with the embarrassment at the hands of Bournemouth, they had none in four. As of Christmas Day, they had scored only 18 times all season in the league, at the miserable rate of one per game. And it’s not as if they have created loads of chances since. It’s just that they’ve clicked up front. They have finally become clinical.
It all started at half-time on Boxing Day against Villa, when they were 2-0 down. Alejandro Garnacho, newly shifted to the right, scored twice and then Rasmus Hojlund lashed in the winner to break his Premier League duck in his 15th appearance. Today it was the other way round: first a blast from Hojlund, then a brace from Garnacho, now a fixture on the right. Today is Hojlund’s 21st birthday, and when he and Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo all sat in a row to celebrate the second goal, he was the old man of the trio. His celebrations, fierce at first as he emerged from his famine, are softer now and full of smiles. His interviews, this afternoon and on Thursday, have shown what the fans already suspected: that he’s one of the good guys. And his English is exceptional. When we settle down to watch a United game broadcast live in 2040 – probably beamed straight into our brains – it will be a surprise if Hojlund isn’t one of the pundits.
The last home game before 6 February is when Old Trafford remembers the men who died at Munich 66 years ago. After the wreaths and the silence and the solemn faces, this performance was another fitting way to honour their memory. If there’s one thing that’s sure to make an older fan feel rejuvenated, it’s the sight of the younger players having a ball.
The game itself was a shoot-out for sixth. West Ham, as they travelled north, were one point and one place above United, who therefore couldn’t afford to lose (though you can say that about most of their games at the moment). West Ham were the better team in the first half, more purposeful, more joined-up, taking way more shots and more touches in the box. According to expected goals, they were the better team throughout and should have won 2-1. United’s xG in the first half was only one-sixth of a goal: or to put it another way, Hojlund’s movement and finish (on his weaker foot, his right) were about seven times better than expected. Poor old David Moyes, dignified as he was during the formalities, seems doomed when he walks into the away dressing-room at Old Trafford. And once Emerson blew his big chance just after half-time, you just knew that United were going to double their lead. As in the 3-0 win at Everton in November, they weren’t that good, but that was easily good enough.
They ended up with a flurry of minor landmarks. In terms of home league games this season, this was their first win by more than one goal, and only their third clean sheet. It was their first 3-0 at home in the league since last February, when they found another 2pm start (against a labouring Leicester) equally comfortable. None of these things should have taken them anything like so long, but at least they’ve rectified them now. Next they need to go to Villa Park and get a draw at the very least. Villa and Spurs are the only teams in the top five that look remotely catchable, and United have already played Spurs twice. They may have to keep inching forward without Lisandro Martinez, who has had the misfortune to get injured again, just after coming back and finding his best form. He and Casemiro – who stage-managed Hojlund’s goal – make the whole team better just by being switched on.
Tim de Lisle is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter at The Guardian. If you’re still on the medium formerly known as Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.