Coutinho can take Villa on Magical tour
Unlucky
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PHILIPPE COUTINHO once commanded a £143million transfer fee – and was nicknamed ‘The Magician’ by way of an acknowledgement.
It took less than 20 minutes for Aston Villa and the Premier League to remember why as he pulled a rabbit out of the hat at Villa Park.
The pint-sized Brazilian produced an act of escapology that Harry Houdini would have been proud of as he rescued a point for Steven Gerrard.
Asked the near-impossible by his new boss – to claw back a two-goal deficit against Manchester United – he jumped off the substitutes’ bench and turned back the clock in devastating fashion.
If there was any doubt about whether the 29-year-old still possessed the kind of skills that had wowed Anfield, they were dispelled inside less then 20 minutes.
Trailing to a brace from Bruno Fernandes, Villa were desperately seeking inspiration to break through a rearguard that only rarely looked like being punctured.
But anyone who can count Inter Milan, Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich as part of his CV perhaps should be trusted to deliver.
And boy, did he.
Villa were seeking to overturn one of the most wretched records against Manchester United and were somewhat unlucky to have been cast those two goals adrift.
Fernandes had struck twice and the manner of the celebrations after his second as the game headed into its final quarter suggested that Ralf Rangnick’s men had the points safely in the bag at one of their favourite venues.
But Coutinho, who jetted into Birmingham on a private plane via Paris from Barcelona on Thursday and who must have still been acquainting himself with his new surroundings, didn’t need any time to adjust on the pitch.
He played a neat give and go with Villa prodigy Carney Chukwuemeka and fed Jacob Ramsey who levelled.
And then, with Villa Park sparked into life, Ramsey managed to return the favour, lifting the ball into the net and sending the Holte End wild with delight.
It was a decided coup for both Gerrard and Villa to secure this transfer as the club’s new boss wasted no time in putting down a marker of the standards he aspires to with this audacious swoop.
It has set tongues wagging that Villa mean business and there was no better way to start than to try and end a 27-year wait for a home league victory over the Red Devils. For so long, they huffed and puffed as it appeared that Rangnick had left his own mark on the game. It has taken five matches and six weeks but finally there was a glimpse of the methods that have meant the bespectacled German has the keys to Old Trafford in his possession.
Manchester United’s supporters got a proper view of the pressing football upon which their interim boss has built his reputation.
Tyrone Mings is normally afforded enough time to put up a deckchair and don a pair of shades as he decides where next to pass the ball.
He didn’t last night.
Edinson Cavani was detailed to lead from the front but once he made his move,
Fred scampered out of midfield to join him. If the ball was in the vicinity of Anthony Elanga (left) the Swedish teen gave the attack some real zip – then he chased down his man. Then it was Fernandes’s turn.
There appeared to be a real method in which Rangnick’s team went about their business.
Promotion
The visitors’ boss had left out Harry Maguire and it was clear by his promotion of Elanga to the starting line-up – at the expense of the likes of Jadon Sancho, Juan
Mata and Jesse Lingard – that he is going to do it his way.
It wasn’t perfect, by any means. But in terms of seeing an energetic press put on the opposition, Manchester United’s players gave it a go.
It looked like succeeding too.
Until the boy from Brazil stepped up, that is.