by On this evidence, it will take Manchester United well over three years to knock Manchester City and Liverpool off their perch.
As it stands, a deserved win for Fulham United left Aston Villa eight points behind in fourth place and more damning questions for manager Erik ten Hag.
“Absolute misery” as Sir Jim Ratcliffe described this week watching United over the past decade. This dismal performance could have been achieved with a similar appraisal.
United looked to have grabbed an undeserved point late on when Harry Maguire scored in the last minute of regulation time but there was still a tailwind to come. The clock was showing 97 minutes when substitute Adama Traoré broke down the Fulham right, bypassing Christian Eriksen and Maguire before cutting inside and finding Alex Iwobi.
Iwobi squared Andre Onana’s net, eyed the United goalkeeper and slotted the ball into the near corner. Onana didn’t move. Fulham hadn’t won away from home in the Premier League since the opening day defeat at Everton but were the better team across the board after a brief spell of constant pressure on United when Marco Silva feared great job by all his team. to be undone. The Fulham manager needn’t have panicked and it was a terrifying sight at the end to keep a team celebrating their second win at Old Trafford since 1963.
Without the injured Rasmus Hojlund, United looked at ease going forward. Marcus Rashford was lost at center forward. And it tells you everything about Antony’s current £85 million man position that the Brazilian winger was left on the bench for academy graduate Omari Forson, making his first Premier League start, and didn’t feature until the 99th minute. It was only up front, though. United were second best across the field. His midfield did not clash with Andreas Pereira, Sasa Lukic and Harrison Reed. Iwobi dominated United’s defense all afternoon. Fulham left-back Antonee Robinson was comfortably the best defender on display. Hojlund aside, United may have been missing Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martínez but Fulham were without the influential Joao Palhinha and Raúl Jiménez.
This was United’s 10th league win in 26 games. It remains to be seen just how expensive his pursuit of Champions League qualification will be, but Ratcliffe, in his first game since his £1.03 billion deal for 27.7 per cent of the club was formally completed, will be concerned. that United could look so bad. .
Fulham were the better team in the opening 45 minutes and it was unfortunate not to be ahead. United academy graduate Pereira, Lukic and captain Reed ran the midfield. Together that triumvirate continued to go through United’s porous middle. Casemiro gave far too much space to Pereira, for one, regularly, who was almost invisible before entering the game later in the half, and who was at the center of so many Fulham attacks. There was a method to Fulham’s attacks. It was the final finish that was missing. Their best move came just after the half hour mark when they worked the ball from back to front, via Pereira and Iwobi’s square pass across the penalty area to Rodrigo Muniz saw Fulham turn United on back Victor Lindelof far too easily. Muniz’s shot from the outside hit the post.
Diogo Dalot hit a post for United minutes earlier with a long-range shot, but the home side’s tactics were largely to get the ball to Alejandro Garnacho in the hope that their energetic Argentinian could do something. It was United’s brightest attacking spark for a long time. In fact, he created their only chance and his two best chances, Robinson heading one curling shot before Bernd Leno pushed the second for a corner.
With Hojlund injured, Rashford was deployed as a center forward and once again looked unhappy and ineffective in the position. Forson had a couple of nice touches and one shot went down quickly but was replaced eight minutes after the restart after struggling largely against Fulham’s pocket-back on Robinson’s left.
Fulham should have done more with the many chances they created. In another attack, with Iwobi teaming up with Robinson again, the left-back tried to pass across the six-yard box half a yard ahead of Pereira, who had Lindelof on his back scrambling to gain ground. Before that, Iwobi should have had a chance when he opened the scoring as Muniz drew Raphael Varane after United had been cut open and Onana had to be at full stretch to keep out a curling shot from the superb Pereira after Casemiro was dispossessed by the. razor sharp Lucic.
The most controversial moment of the first period came in the 36th when Harry Maguire caught Lukic thick on the ankle and was booked for his trouble. Any higher on the United defenders would have been dismissed.
Fulham started the second half as they played for much of the first – proactive, on the front foot, with purpose and intensity. They probably couldn’t believe how tepid United kept at the back and the goal was richly deserved when it came. Pereira’s corner was met by a shot from Calvin Bassey that was blocked by his own teammate, Timothy Castagne. But Castagne had the good sense to leave the ball as he dropped back into Bassey’s path to rifle into the roof.
It wasn’t until the closing stages that United showed some fight. So far, Garnacho has been the only one with some exuberance. Maguire should have done better when he headed Eriksen’s corner wide from four yards, moments after Harry Wilson had sent a shot wide of the post at the other end.
United finally got the breakthrough when Maguire thundered home from close range after Leno spilled Fernandes’ shot. Fulham were suddenly underfoot and Leno looked very nervous when the shots came in. Issa Diop cleared after Leno spilled another shot from Fernandes.
Another goal would come. But it would be at the other end.
