That’s four wins in a row for Manchester United and the last time they did it was last May. So for those looking for signs of life from Erik ten Hag’s team, there you have it. The desire to win. The ability to stay in a game that threatens to move away from you. The mark of late goals. They are very good habits, all of them.
And here United did all that and more to snatch a fabulous game from Aston Villa that they really had no right to win. United scored their goals in the 17th and 87th minutes. In between, Villa was the better team. They had the best opportunities and played the best football.
But when push came to shove, United were better at the dirty, clinical stuff. His goalkeeper André Onana saved with almost his entire body. And when he couldn’t save his team, his defenders did, throwing bodies along the way, sticking out feet, knees and thighs.
And then there were the goals. The first was functional, Rasmus Hojlund scoring on the six-yard line after Harry Maguire headed in a corner. The second was brutally beautiful, Scott McTominay heading home Diogo Dalot’s cross to send the away section into delirium at a feverish Villa Park.
Villa’s goal came midway through the second half, when Douglas Luiz converted a Leon Bailey cross. All the best players, with the possible exception of Maguire and Onana, wore maroon and blue, but United still managed it and at least now they have given themselves a chance at the top four.
Scott McTominay came off the bench to secure a big win for Manchester United against Aston Villa.
Here, once again, the outcasts came to Ten Hag’s aid when he needed them. Maguire and McTominay would have been sold last summer if the United manager had his way. But Maguire was his team’s best defender and spiritual leader here, while McTominay, sent in to try and fill the gaps in midfield, went several steps further by scoring the winning goal.
Villa will be devastated and rightly so. Their attacking players, Bailey, John McGinn and Ollie Watkins, were wonderful to watch at times and threatened to overrun United at times. But Unai Emery’s team is in one of those streaks (three home defeats in a row) when things are not going his way. As for United, the opposite can be said and it has been a while.
United were quite comfortable early on and Maguire seemed to win a header every time he approached a corner, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that one of those incidents led to a goal.
United had threatened slightly in the first 15 minutes and the goal they scored at Holte End was ridiculously simple. Maguire rose above Boubacar Kamara to nod a downward kick and Hojlund, standing alone on the six-yard line, flicked the ball through Emiliano Martínez’s legs with his instep. Replays showed that all the Villa players had moved when Maguire made contact only for Watkins to stay and play goalscorer.
Rasmus Hojlund scored early for the visitors, firing home from close range after connecting with Harry Maguire’s header.
The goal marks the Dane’s fifth in his last five Premier League games after going goalless in his first 14 league games.
André Onana made a couple of solid saves in the first half to twice deny Unai Emery’s side as they chased an equalizer.
But the Villans would equalize after the break, with Douglas Luiz scoring his eighth Premier League goal of the season.
Having had problems at home recently, one wondered what Villa’s response would be. But, backed by a wonderfully noisy crowd, they were the better team for the rest of the first half and would have scored had it not been for some rather ordinary finishing and two very good saves from United’s Onana.
There is energy in Villa when they play well and it is particularly noticeable when they are out of possession. Here, they pressured and harassed United into making mistakes inside their own half and once the ball was handed over, the home team was quick to hand it over to their forward players.
Bailey’s curling shot went just a yard wide of the far post in the 22nd minute and that heralded a period of play that could have given Villa more than a goal.
Onana’s save from McGinn’s powerful drive required strong hands as the ball moved, while the save he made to deny Watkins a minute later was even better. Watkins received a strong pass from McGinn in the first half and looked like a favorite to score until Onana saved with his knee.
Jacob Ramsey then shot wide after being played wide by Alex Moreno before Maguire did brilliantly to block another shot from the same player. That seemed to have saved a certain objective.
The traffic flow was not entirely unidirectional at that time. United continued to look dangerous on the counterattack, especially when Alejandro Garnacho combined with his teammates on the right side. However, his best chances came before his goal, when Hojlund’s shot was superbly blocked by Diego Carlos after the Dane had cleverly played one-two with Bruno Fernandes. There was also a strong shot from Garnacho that flew into the side netting on the near side, causing the United fans packed into the stands at a 45-degree angle in the other corner to feel for a moment that it had gone in.
This was, overall, a really good game, a contest that involved great energy and danger. While the score was one-nil for United, it continued to look like it was going either way.
Villa were the first to threaten in the second half, but once again Onana got in the way. Victor Lindelof, Luke Shaw’s half-time substitute, gave the ball to Matty Cash without pressure in the 48th minute and when the full-back crossed low, Watkins got ahead of Rafael Varane to connect firmly. The ball bounced off Onana’s shoulder, but it would probably be generous to say that the goalkeeper knew a lot about it.
As time went on, Villa seemed to invent new ways to not score. Bailey broke brilliantly on the hour, but his pass was half a meter too hard for Ramsey. Then, two minutes later, a Ramsey shot caught Varane in the heel and landed on the feet of a player dressed in white, Diogo Dalot, instead of one dressed in burgundy and blue.
Then, halfway through the half, the dam broke. Villa won another corner and when Onana saved from close range from Clement Lenglet, the ball was returned low by the increasingly threatening Bailey and turned into the roof of the net by Douglas Luiz from six yards.
Ten Hag’s response was to take off Marcus Rashford and send on McTominay, something that spoke volumes for United’s desperate need to gain some sort of control in midfield. At times they had been invaded. McTominay, however, was to have an entirely different kind of influence.
The game’s momentum waned as it neared its conclusion, and a draw increasingly looked like the most likely outcome.
As he has done so many times for United this season, McTominay made the difference and headed home from Dalot’s cross.
It must be said that at first there were not many changes. Onana dove in to save Luiz once again with 13 minutes left after Dalot made a botched clearance. If the Brazilian had made better contact (and he should have), Onana would have had no chance.
This was not the first time this season that Villa played very well against United. On Boxing Day, a 2-0 lead at Old Trafford turned into a 3-2 defeat. Here, once again, things turned against him later.
Emery’s team had given everything here but were deceived with three minutes left in regulation time. A diagonal ball found youngster Kobbie Mainoo at the other end, he played it back to Dalot and as the winger crossed for the first time, McTominay got ahead of Cash to unleash an unstoppable smash past Martinez from six yards.