Man United interim coach shows he has the midas touch
With Manchester United still scoreless after an hour at Newcastle, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was facing the first real challenge of his interim tenure at England’s biggest club.
His response showed he might just have the same magic touch as a United manager that he had as a player.
Solskjaer sent on Romelu Lukaku as part of a double substitution in the 63rd minute and, 38 seconds later, the striker scored with his first touch to set United on their way to a 2-0 win at St James’ Park yesterday.
That’s four straight victories for Solskjaer since replacing Jose Mourinho last month — among previous United managers, only the great Matt Busby achieved that feat in their first four matches — and 14 goals scored.
“It’s totally different with the new manager,” Lukaku said. “We are all learning from him. So far so good.”
Even better for United, fourthplaced Chelsea could only draw 0-0 at home to Southampton at Stamford Bridge to leave only six points between the teams in the race for a top-four finish and Champions League qualification.
United moved to within three points of fifth-place Arsenal, too. The team have truly been revived by their former striker.
One of Solskjaer’s biggest successes has been getting the best out of young United striker Marcus Rashford, who added the second goal against Newcastle in the 80th minute to make it three in four games under the new coach.
Rashford also fired in the free kick that was spilled by Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, allowing Lukaku to tap in.
“Marcus Rashford has the Cristiano hit — it swerves everywhere,” Solskjaer said, comparing the striker’s dead-ball technique to Cristiano Ronaldo’s, “but I liked his goal today. Calmed himself down, just passed it in. Well done.
“He is only 21, you have to remember that.”
Solskjaer came through his toughest test so far at United and the following league game is yet another step up. A trip to Wembley Stadium for a match against third-place Tottenham is next up.
Chelsea are running out of fit forwards and it is starting to show.
Three days after needing a goal from central midfielder N’Golo Kante to eke out a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, Chelsea lacked a cutting edge in attack as they toiled to a draw against a Southampton side battling to avoid relegation.
With striker Olivier Giroud and wingers Pedro Rodriguez and Callum Hudson-Odoi on the sidelines, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri saw Willian hobble off injured in the first half at Stamford Bridge.
Top scorer Eden Hazard was Chelsea’s biggest threat once again, but he cannot keep bailing the team out.
“I think we played well for 80 metres, then in the last 20 metres we were in trouble,” Sarri said. “We had four or five goal opportunities but sometimes if you want to have a lot of opportunities you have to score the first goal.”
West Ham and Brighton shared four goals in 12 second-half minutes in their 2-2 draw. Marko Arnautovic scored both goals for West Ham, who were 2-0 down at one stage.