UNITED WAKE UP TO DELAY THE CORONATION
Reds’ fightback makes City wait — as Greenwood becomes top teen scorer
IT iS very unlikely Manchester United’s remarkable powers of recovery will make any difference to the outcome of the Premier League title race, but they have taken it further than many of us expected.
it would require a monumental collapse by Manchester City to throw it away now — not to mention United having to beat Leicester and Liverpool at Old Trafford in the space of 50 hours to stand the remotest chance of taking the contest past the end of the week.
For 45 minutes at Villa Park, it looked as though Pep Guardiola and his players were going to crack open the champagne last night.
Once again, United were poor before half-time and decidedly better after it. For a record tenth time, they came from behind to win in the Premier League, making it 31 points gained from losing positions this season.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side deserve credit for that, but it is mystifying why they keep doing this to themselves.
‘To be honest, i don’t really know — maybe we’re not ready for the game,’ was the rather alarming admission from defender Luke Shaw. ‘We need to step it up in the first half because we can’t keep counting on our second-half performances and coming back from goals down.’
it allowed Aston Villa to take the lead through an excellent strike from Bertrand Traore and raise hopes of a first league win over United here since 1995 — Alan Hansen’s ‘You can’t win anything with kids’ comment and all that.
Ultimately, though, they were left cursing referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision to award United another penalty for Douglas Luiz’s challenge on Paul Pogba, and then show Ollie Watkins a second yellow card late on for diving.
So this most distant of title races moves on to United’s game with Leicester tomorrow and then perhaps Liverpool on Thursday. This win also confirmed a top-four finish for United.
Solskjaer had expressed his dissatisfaction over having to play four matches in eight days — and three key league fixtures in the space of five days.
He picked a strong line-up yesterday which suggests the
changes will come against Leicester. Cue indignation on Merseyside. United did not start like a team determined to make City wait for their coronation.
Villa’s goal summed up United’s first-half shortcomings as Mason Greenwood and Fred both gave away possession near their own penalty box.
John McGinn played the ball to Luiz, who shifted it quickly into Traore. He spun Victor Lindelof, who failed to get enough contact on the ball or get close enough to his opponent, and arrowed a strike past Dean Henderson from a tight angle into the top corner with his left foot.
This was another weak defensive performance from Lindelof, who gifted the ball to McGinn on the stroke of half-time, allowing Watkins to force a save from Henderson.
United had offered little in the way of an attacking threat up to that point. Marcus Rashford got the ball caught under his feet in front of goal from a cross-shot by Greenwood, who was denied by a fine one-handed save by Emiliano Martinez.
Heaven knows what Solskjaer puts in his players’ half-time tea, but it seems to work every time. The transformation was immediate and it brought two goals in five minutes. The first came from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute. Luiz had already caused Pogba to stumble once as the Frenchman held him off, then sent him over again with a clumsy attempt to win the ball from behind.
Bruno Fernandes had scored from the spot on his two other Premier League appearances against Villa and did the same here. There was a little stutter-step run-up to let Martinez make the first move before sliding the ball in the other direction for his 27th goal in all competitions this season.
No sooner were United level than they were going ahead through Greenwood’s 16th league goal for the club — moving ahead of Wayne Rooney as United’s top teenage goalscorer in the Premier League on a list that also includes Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rashford. And he’s still got another five months to go before he turns 20.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka played the ball into him from the right and Greenwood turned Tyrone Mings far too easily before beating Martinez with a low shot at his near post.
United lost their captain Harry Maguire to an ankle injury shortly after he had almost headed into his own net, but substitute Edinson Cavani made sure of victory with his eighth goal in seven appearances in the 87th minute.
The ball was worked wide to Rashford, who whipped a cross to the edge of the six-yard box where Cavani had stolen a yard on Matty Cash and scored with a lovely glancing header.
It got even worse for Villa before the end when Watkins beat Henderson to a through ball and went down in the box. There was contact but enough for a penalty? Kavanagh harshly decided it was a dive, VAR backed him up and the Villa striker was on his way for a second booking.
ASTON VILLA (4-2-3-1): Martinez 5; Cash 6, Konsa 7, Mings 6, Targett 6; Luiz 5 (Ramsey 65), McGinn 7; Traore 7, Barkley 5 (Davis 77), El Ghazi 6 (Wesley 77); Watkins 5. Subs not used: Heaton, Nakamba, Elmohamady, Hause, PhilogeneBidace, Chukwuemeka. Booked: Watkins, McGinn. Sent off: Watkins. MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): Henderson 7; Wan-Bissaka 7, Lindelof 5, Maguire 5 (Bailly 78), Shaw 7; McTominay 5, Fred 5; Greenwood 8 (Cavani 65), Fernandes 6 (Matic 86), Pogba 7; Rashford 6. Subs not used: De Gea, Mata, Telles, Williams, Van de Beek, Tuanzebe. Booked: Maguire. Man of the match: Mason Greenwood. Referee: Chris Kavanagh.