Man United finally ‘up to the speed’
OGS lauds Fernandes, ‘inspirational’ Maguire
LONDON: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer declared Manchester United’s season “starts today” after Bruno Fernandes and “inspirational” Harry Maguire enjoyed sweet moments of redemption in their side’s 4-1 win at Newcastle on Saturday.
Solskjaer’s side suffered a humiliating 6-1 defeat against Tottenham at Old Trafford just before the international break.
But they made partial amends for that embarrassment with a muchneeded second win of the Premier League season.
After Luke Shaw’s own goal gave Newcastle an early lead, United captain Maguire scored the equaliser just days after he was widely criticised for his red card in England’s Nations League defeat against Denmark at Wembley.
Maguire’s first Premier League goal since February was a cathartic moment after a troubled few months marred by poor performance on the pitch and his Greek court case off it.
“Harry scored and leads by example. He showed good character, I am happy for him. He had a couple of difficult weeks since he last played for us,” Solskjaer said.
Fernandes also went from zero to hero as the midfielder’s second half penalty was saved by Karl Darlow, before he hit a superb strike to put United ahead in the closing minutes.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka made it three with his first goal for United and Marcus Rashford wrapped up the late goal blitz in stoppage-time.
Although United left it late to finish off Newcastle, the result was no more than they deserved and Solskjaer will hope it is the start of a better period for his team after their troubled opening to the campaign.
“The season started for us today. We have come up to the speed of the game and that showed today,” he said.
After labelling the Tottenham rout as the “worst” day of his career, Solskjaer made five changes for United’s return to action.
Eric Bailly, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba, Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial were replaced by Victor Lindelof, Scott McTominay, Fred, Daniel James and Juan Mata.
Elsewhere, Chelsea conceded late to draw 3-3 at home to Southampton while Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola got the better of former assistant Mikel Arteta in a 1-0 win over Arsenal.
Chelsea looked to be in total control after cruising into a 2-0 lead against Southampton at Stamford Bridge, courtesy of new signing Timo Werner’s first Premier League goals.
But a goal from Danny Ings shortly before half-time and a second-half strike from Che Adams wiped out their lead.
Frank Lampard’s side rallied immediately to regain the lead, Werner teeing up Kai Havertz, only for Jannik Vestergaard to power home an addedtime equaliser.
City returned to winning ways after an indifferent start to the season, courtesy of a first-half goal from Raheem
Sterling, who condemned Arsenal to their seventh straight defeat in league matches between the two sides.