United do the dirty work well as spiritual leader Maguire cleans up
ATHUMPING game deserved a thumping finale and that’s exactly what it got.
A cross from Manchester United full back Diogo Dalot found Scott McTominay bullying Villa’s Matty Cash on the six-yard line and the header to win the game was so emphatic, so perfectly and brutishly timed, that McTominay may well have woken this morning to find the ball manufacturer’s name written right across his forehead.
What a goal to win a terrific game of football. Villa will be devastated. Between United taking the lead in the 17th minute and regaining it for good in the 86th, their opponents were the better team. Too quick, too eager, too clever and too welldrilled for Erik ten Hag’s United.
But when it came to it, United were better at the dirty stuff and the clinical stuff. Their goalkeeper
Andre Onana made saves with just about every bit of his body. And when he couldn’t save his team then his defenders did, throwing bodies in the way, sticking out feet and knees and thighs.
In front of Onana, Harry Maguire — the renaissance man of English football — was sensational. What an example the United central defender sets to his team-mates these days. He no longer carries the captain’s armband for Ten Hag but what’s a piece of cotton anyway? Maguire — when fit to start — is the spiritual leader of this United team and here he led from the back.
So that’s four wins on the bounce now for United in all competitions and the last time they did that was last May. For those looking for signs of life from Ten Hag’s team, there it is. The desire to win. The ability to stay in a game that is threatening to get away from you. The scoring of late goals. They are very good habits to have, all of them.
United will have to be better than this if they are to come hard in the second half of the season and take a Champions League spot. The truth is that they don’t really look good enough. But victories here and against West Ham and Wolves have placed them on the outskirts of the race and a month ago they would have taken that.
They never controlled this game and still look short of a definitive answer in the centre of midfield. Young Kobbie Mainoo has been the find of the season at Old Trafford and England manager Gareth Southgate was here to see him play. But Villa’s creative players were the ones who caught the attention.
John McGinn, a Scot, was the game’s best passer and Leon Bailey and fit-again Jacob Ramsey lent Villa’s attacking play a cleanliness and directness that United struggled desperately to cope with. Had Unai Emery’s team taken half of their good chances they would have won the game.
United actually began well and had been threatening before they took the lead. That was, as it turned out, their best spell of the game.
Their goal was a cheap one from a Villa point of view. Maguire had already won one header from a corner and when he applied a touch to a simple inswinger, Rasmus Hojlund was unmarked on the six-yard line to sweep a volley between Emiliano Martinez’s legs with his instep.
The Villa defence had moved out to play Hojlund offside but Ollie Wakins didn’t seem to have read that particular note and he was half a yard the wrong side of his opponent.
Given Villa had lost their two previous home games, conceding an early goal could have cowed them. Instead and to their credit, it had the opposite effect. For the next hour or so they came hard at United and at times cut through their opponents more easily than they may have imagined.
Onana saved well from a McGinn stinger and then advanced to block Watkins. Bailey curled a shot wide and Maguire blocked from Ramsey. The door to United’s house creaked and groaned but did not give.
Early in the second half, with Luke Shaw withdrawn injured, his replacement Victor Lindelof gave the ball straight to Cash. He