Premier League: Manchester United 1 Chelsea 1 (Fernandes 70, Caicedo 74)
It has come to feel like a collector’s item – a Manchester United goal in the Premier League. And so when it came, Bruno Fernandes converting from the penalty spot on 70 minutes, the celebrations were suitably wild. Especially from Ruud van Nistelrooy, the United interim manager, who is keeping the dugout warm for Rúben Amorim, who will take over next Monday.
Van Nistelrooy pumped his fists, he ran down the line, he jumped up and punched the air. It was a release of emotion because there had been so many frustrations in terms of the United performance. It was only the team’s ninth goal of the league season – in their 10th game. Remarkable levels of profligacy has been one of the themes of their season; one of the many drivers in the demise of Erik ten Hag.
The lead would last only four minutes. Chelsea deserved something, especially on the back of their first-half display, and they got it when the game’s best player, Moisés Caicedo, caught a volley so sweetly on the edge of the area after a half-cleared corner. His shot picked out the bottom corner, André Onana powerless.
There were chances at both ends thereafter, Fernandes blowing a gilt-edged one at the very end but the draw was about right. It left United on 12 points, their lowest tally after 10 league fixtures since 1986-87, the season which saw Sir Alex Ferguson take charge on 6 November.
Amorim has had the big build-up, blanket coverage since last Monday which has made him sound like the greatest young manager of all time. United – and everyone associated with them – deal only in drama and extremes. The hope of what is to come is tantalising for the club’s supporters.
It was down to Van Nistelrooy again here, game two of his four in caretaker charge and it was always going to be a tougher challenge than Wednesday’s Carabao Cup romp against Leicester. Chelsea had travelled with confidence, Enzo Maresca reverting to his first choice XI after rotating all of them in the Carabao Cup exit at Newcastle. The team was set up for Cole Palmer and he was prominent, as usual.
There was a reason why Palmer sought space up the inside left; to get at Casemiro, to exploit the United midfielder’s lack of mobility. It was from a loose Casemiro pass that Palmer almost profited early on, Caicedo stepping up to win the ball and feed him. Palmer was kept out by a solid piece of one-on-one defending by Matthijs de Ligt.
Chelsea were the better team in the first-half, more cohesive up through the thirds, Caicedo excellent. Their big chance was Noni Madueke’s header from a Palmer corner on 15 minutes. With Wesley Fofana also free behind him, Madueke adjusted his body to head against the post. Was Fofana better placed? On the rebound, Lisandro Martínez swiped at Levi Colwill. Chelsea wanted a penalty. It would have been a generous award.
Chelsea’s press created a few problems for United, especially when Onana played Casemiro into trouble, Caicedo making the challenge and watching the ball loop up and over the crossbar. Chelsea’s general menace, though, did not translate into many clear chances before the interval.
United wanted to win the ball and transition quickly, looking for Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford. There were too many times when they either missed their passes or did not move the ball quickly enough. More broadly, they struggled for options.
United did have chances in the first half, two big ones, the first in the 24th minute when Rasmus Højlund crossed low from the left on the counter and Rashford let it run for Garnacho. He stepped inside only to shoot tamely. On the stroke of half-time, Fernandes crossed for Rashford, who banged a volley off the top of the crossbar from a difficult angle.
Pedro Neto ran at Diogo Dalot after the interval and drilled low past the far post but it was increasingly error strewn and attritional. When Garnacho blew a golden chance from a Fernandes cutback, scuffing the shot with his right foot, it was easy to wonder where the goal would come from.
Højlund battled gamely, desperate to escape the physical attention of Fofana and Colwill. Finally he did, slipping away from the former to control a Casemiro cross and if the touch took him away from goal, he got his reward when Robert Sánchez flew off his line and caught his ankle with his gloves. Fernandes sent Sánchez the wrong way.
Game over? Not a chance. With this United team, the closing stages are usually the prompt for the chaos. Once level, the Chelsea substitute, Enzo Fernández almost made it 2-1, chipping too high after a lapse in the United defence.
Back came United, Garnacho shooting past the far post and fading a side-on volley too high. It was not his day. Fernandes almost had the final word, getting the break of the ball inside the area only to send the volley into the Stretford End. It was of a piece with much of United’s season. – Guardian
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
