Man Utd 3-2 Aston Villa (Garnacho 59′, 71′, Hojlund 82′ | McGinn 21′, Dendoncker 26′)
OLD TRAFFORD – Manchester United had to turn up at some point. They did, 440 minutes after the last time they scored a goal. There would be two more in a 22-minute spell that would render Old Trafford senseless, including a first in the Premier League for Rasmus Hojlund.
They were some strikes too, Alejandro Garnacho with two to remind United’s new investors of what might be should they begin to make sense of the disfunction. Good United was matched by bad United, a duality that made life far easier than it should have been for Villa in the opening period.
The visitors did not have to be anywhere near their impressive best to gain a foothold in this contest. The goals they claimed to ease into a 2-0 lead were donations from a defence as leaky as the Old Trafford roof.
But this would not be a night when the blood drained from red shirts. Garnacho, deployed on the right to accommodate Marcus Rashford on the left, embodied the fighting sprit that defines the institution, a club built on the endeavour of wide men with big hearts and lethal feet.
Garnacho thought he had given United the perfect start to the second half before the abstractions at Stockley Park established his toenail was fractionally ahead of Rashford’s. There was no infraction with his 59th minute thrust that got United pumping, still less with his equaliser 12 minutes later.
And then with just nine minute of normal time remaining Hojlund slammed one in off the post. It was as climactic a moment as you could imagine, the more so since it appeared so unlikely with United two down after just 26 minutes.
We have seen this before of course. United erupt episodically, and with pace. It is these moments in which Erik ten Hag is so invested. And he is right. United need to convert on the quality of the chances created. Fourteen minutes in Bruno Fernandes sent Garnacho away down the right to devastating effect. Or at least it would have been had he squared the ball more accurately. Somehow it evaded both Hojlund and the restored Rashford and the danger was gone.
Six minutes later United were behind. It was another ugly misjudgment by Andre Onana, who let an awkwardly bouncing free-kick evade him. The second was not long in coming. From a corner Leander Dendoncker flicked out a heel to divert the ball past the statuesque United defenders. United’s capacity for self-harm appeared boundless and at that juncture made the case for Ten Hag’s removal, as an act of kindness as much as punishment.
A third successive defeat at Old Trafford would have been no kind of selling point for the new football department pledged to resurrect the club. For Sir Dave Brailsford, the Ineos representative in the stands, the new order looked very much like the old at the outset; reactive, uncertain, individuals looking for others to lead.
Villa, in contrast, were assured, confident and supremely organised. With such effortless repetition did they find their wide players it looked like they had an extra man, commonly Lucas Digne, who was routinely one step ahead in the opening half.
Ten Hag could not get to the tunnel quickly enough at the break. This was no time for tactics, but inspiration. The narrative around the Ineos takeover suggests that Ten Hag has the support of the new football regime. The way the players responded in the second half was a further endorsement.
Rasmus Hojlund has his first Premier League goal!
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 26, 2023
Bruno Fernandes' corner is eventually turned home and Man Utd lead against Aston Villa#PLonPrime #MUNAVL pic.twitter.com/28HZx7I3pT
Should they repeat this kind of targeted commitment in the coming weeks, United might yet make something of the season. Conversely, euphoria has a way of warping the most sensible minds.
Brailsford would have been thrilled by the capacity of United to shapeshift so radically from hopeless cases to plausible actors in a drama that explains why Sir Jim Ratcliffe was so keen to become involved in the first place.
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