Comfortable victory eases pressure on under-fire Solskjaer

SAVING Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from the sack before the clocks go back wasn’t in Cristiano Ronaldo’s brief when he was welcomed back to Manchester.

In fact, there is even a theory that allowing hearts to rule heads, by making sure Ronaldo didn’t fall into the hands of Pep Guardiola, has been part of Solskjaer’s problem.

But with the United boss needing his very own Mark Robins moment, it was the man from Madeira who provided it.

Ronaldo’s fierce far-post volley six minutes before half-time was routine by his own standards – but it was still brilliant enough to be part of any Goal of the Month competition.

Bruno Fernandes’ clipped pass was a bit special as well, spotting Ronaldo smuggling himself in behind Ben Davies, the Portuguese midfielder served up a delicious delivery that his countryman gobbled up.

And just to show he is every inch a team player these days, Ronaldo turned provider in the 64th minute for Edinson Cavani to show United’s 30-somethings are definitely all right.

Once

Ronaldo had put Cavani clear there was only going to be one outcome.

Marcus Rashford sealed the deal six minutes from time after replacing Ronaldo, beating Hugo Lloris with an assured low finish after being set free by Nemanja Matic. Now, after spending the last week as a dead man walking, Solskjaer will go level on points with Guardiola if his team wins Saturday’s Manchester derby. There is no doubt that the brilliance of stars like Ronaldo (below), Cavani and Fernandes is papering over cracks that are preventing United from becoming real contenders.

But you can be sure Tottenham’s fans wouldn’t mind a bit of it.

The home supporters who lined up outside their billion pound stadium to chant ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ as United’s squad disembarked from their team bus must have felt a bit foolish at the end.

Maybe their taunts were for Nuno Espirito Santo. Or, more likely, Daniel Levy.

Spurs were jeered off at half-time. Santo’s decision to bring off Lucas Moura was met with chants that the Portuguese doesn’t know what he’s doing.

It’s one step forward, two paces back for Tottenham at the moment.

But Levy found it tough enough to find a manager in the summer, so Santo is another manager who might benefit from his chairman’s lack of a Plan B.

Solskjaer knew he had to respond to his

Liverpool humiliation – and so did his players.

And their tenacity was illustrated when Aaron Wan-bissaka

hunted down Heung Min-son to produce a brilliant recovery tackle. Wan-bissaka didn’t know that the Spurs forward had strayed offside, but his attitude earned him highfives and pats on

the back from his team-mates. Then Ronaldo scored and United were on their way.