Manchester United picked up a vital 2-1 win over Chelsea at Old Trafford to ease the pressure on Erik ten Hag.
Two goals from Scott McTominay cancelled out Cole Palmer’s first-half leveller for Chelsea to give Erik ten Hag a vital win for Manchester United.
The Red Devils badly needed a victory to keep their Premier League season alive.
Here are five things we learned from the vital victory at Old Trafford.
McTominay back in the goals
For all of the complaints before kick-off about Ten Hag’s decision to start McTominay against Chelsea, the midfielder was, once again, back in the goals for the Red Devils with two smart finishes to take his tally to six for the season.
After Bruno Fernandes missed his penalty with Robert Sanchez diving smartly to deny the Portuguese, there were worries that this would be yet another half of promise for the Red Devils that would ultimately not be awarded with a goal, but the academy graduate struck.
The second was another striker’s finish as he ghosted in brilliantly and headed the ball into the roof of the net following a brilliant Alejandro Garnacho cross.
Whether Kobbie Mainoo should have started or not is irrelevant because while the Scottish midfielder continues to score on the big occasions, he will keep on starting games for the Red Devils.
United’s defensive frailties exposed yet again
The game was certainly an exciting spectacle but you could imagine that Ten Hag, who constantly preaches for control, was going mad about the severe lack of exactly that.
Nicolas Jackson was denied by Andre Onana and Mykhailo Mudryk fired a low effort just wide of the Cameroon international’s near post, Mauricio Pochettino’s side certainly had chances.
The Blues eventually struck through Cole Palmer thanks to a low effort that beat Onana at his far post and the West London side were good value for that goal and may have thought they deserved more.
The Red Devils did improve in this regard in the second half, much to the Dutchman’s delight.
Alejandro Garnacho impresses again
There would have been some eyebrows raised when the team news dropped an hour before kick-off and Marcus Rashford was dropped from the starting lineup.
There may have been fears that dropping the Englishman, who scored 30 goals for the Red Devils last season, would be a mistake but Garnacho, once again, impressed.
The Argentine took on Marc Cucurella, who looked ragged all evening, and came out on top on multiple occasions against the Spaniard. When Reece James replaced him, Garnacho still had a field day against the Chelsea captain.
Whilst the teenager continues to perform and excite, he will start games for Ten Hag, and rightly so.
Sofyan Amrabat impresses
There was a lorry load of excitement when United decided to sign Sofyan Amrabat on loan from Fiorentina, but for the past three months, the Moroccan has not been at his best.
Amrabat was treading dangerously close to the Marcel Sabitzer territory of loan signings and was becoming very quickly forgotten about with Mainoo excelling, but he showed his class today.
Every time Chelsea broke forward on a counterattack, they looked to have so much space in the midfield but Amrabat, somehow, plugged every gap, winning 71% of his ground duels, he was everywhere.
What it means for United
The win over Chelsea keeps the pressure off Ten Hag for now and lifts United to sixth place, incredibly just three points off fourth-placed Manchester City.
With a difficult game coming up against an in-form Bournemouth side, building up momentum ahead of the game at Old Trafford against trhe Cherries will be crucial to their chances of winning that game.
After the tough home game, United have a busy run of fixtures with games against Liverpool, Aston Villa and Bayern Munich the pick of the bunch. It could be a defining December for Ten Hag.
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
