Man Utd 1 Fulham 2
Erik ten Hag’s side welcomed Fulham to Old Trafford with the visitors having a dire record against the Red Devils. After Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s verbal warning shots in midweek to Man City and Liverpool, his club had to start backing up his big talk.
However, it was the visitors who began playing all the football in the early stages. They passed the ball from defence to attack, with not a single Man Utd player touching the ball, before Alex Iwobi dragged his shot wide of the post.
The hosts’ defence parted like the Red Sea for The Cottagers to break forward, even more so as Iwobi got closer to goal. He really should have done better and you could see the player was already wondering whether his side would live to regret that missed opportunity.
Ten Hag’s side forced a corner, which Leno punched clear. Fulham broke and opened up the Man Utd defence like a Christmas present, forcing a corner. As the cross came in, Muniz met it with a header, forcing Onana into a save which Lukic could not react quickly enough to tap home the rebound.
Credit: @FulhamFC
Man Utd had their first effort on goal when Dalot tried his luck from some distance. It had Leno at full stretch but struck the outside of the post. The home fans were hoping it would spark their team into life in this game.
Fulham came forward once again and as the ball was played into Muniz, he held off Lindelof, before swivelling and getting a shot away. Onana was just a spectator as he saw the effort strike the post on go wide. The visitors were spurning a lot of good chances.
Casemiro then gave the ball away in the Fulham half and Lukic sprinted clear of the midfielder before laying it off to Pereira. The former Man Utd player looked to bend one in the far corner but Onana got down well to tip it around the post.
United’s new owner said that he planned on getting the club challenging for major honours again in three years. Those words seemed as hollow as the UK’s pledge to cut carbon emissions by 68% by 2030, although that promise still seemed more doable than Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s.
The visitors forced a corner in the second half when Reed almost caught out the keeper with a cross that had to be tipped over. As the cross came in, Bassey’s shot was blocked but he managed to react quickest to smash the ball into the roof of the net.
As the Manchester rain poured down, Erik ten Hag looked like a video to a Coldplay song on the touchline. The hosts forced a corner, where Maguire was picked out and had a free header but the defender could not find the target. Big chance wasted.
Credit: @FulhamFC
The Red Devils threw caution to the wind and stuck the defender up front, desperately looking for a goal. Fernandes picked the ball up out wide, cut inside onto his right foot and got a shot away that Leno could only parry. Maguire was there to slot home the rebound and draw the sides level.
Marco Silva’s head dropped knowing that his side were paying the price for all their missed chances. They had dominated this game and should have been two or three-nil up by this stage of the game. Old Trafford erupted like Steve Bruce had just scored the goal to win them the league.
Man Utd started to press, looking for a winner, when they had hardly deserved to be level. Eriksen clipped a ball into the box and picked out Lindelof but, as many players do, he closed his eyes when going to head it and the ball hit his shoulder instead and was easily saved by Leno.
Traore then danced past Eriksen and Maguire in his own half, before steaming forward. The United defender was never going to catch him and he found Iwobi in the box. He shifted the ball onto his right foot and drilled it into the bottom corner at the near post with the keeper rooted to the spot.
Fulham got a victory their performance had fully deserved. Erik ten Hag’s press conference, as ever, sounded like Boris Johnson trying to explain why he had a party in number 10 during a pandemic. It all comes across as delusions of grandeur.
Fortunately, due to his avoiding paying UK tax, Sir Jim Ratcliffe is only allowed to set foot on British soil for 90 days of the year so he was not in attendance for this horror show. Asking the UK taxpayer to fund their new stadium seems quite the stretch though considering.
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