Manchester United beating Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford was a flattering scoreline for Mauricio Pochettino’s men.
Scott McTominay scored twice for Manchester United in a narrow win but truth be told, the Red Devils should have added another two or three goals to their tally to improve their rather poor goal difference in the Premier League of 0.
United had chance after chance to make the game safe but they couldn’t quite get the third goal to really kill the game off and end Chelsea’s hopes of a reprieve.
The chances they missed, and the sheer amount of attempts they squandered, was a story that will be all too familiar to Erik ten Hag.
United’s chance creation
A surprising fact emerged at half-time of the game which rammed home United’s dominance of the game at Old Trafford despite the scores being level going into the interval.
According to a post on X from statistician OptaJoe, United had an xG of 2.78 in the first half against Chelsea, the most any side has accumulated in the first half of a Premier League game this season.
Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty kick, just the fourth he has missed for the Red Devils, which of course is a hefty chunk of that 2.78 (roughly 0.76 of that) but chance creation is seemingly not an issue for United, thankfully.
In fact, United accumulated 4.07 xG over the 90 minutes, the second biggest in the league this season behind Chelsea’s tally of 4.12 they racked up against Tottenham Hotspur.
What is an issue, however, is the continual struggle for the Red Devils to put the ball into the back of the net. Had McTominay been more clinical, he could have walked away with the match ball, he had that many chances.
Chance creation is always a sign that things are going well and perhaps Ten Hag has stumbled across something with his team selection but goals need to arrive soon.
United have scored just 18 Premier League goals in 15 games this season, it is not good enough.
Ten Hag’s golden ticket
There were some moans and groans when Kobbie Mainoo was left out of the starting 11 and a fair few eyebrows were raised when Marcus Rashford was dropped from the starting lineup but the decision worked.
Antony on the right and Alejandro Garnacho on the left with Rasmus Hojlund leading the line worked for the Red Devils against a struggling Chelsea backline.
Sofyan Amrabat, too, looked very impressive in the middle of the park, and at the moment, there is no way you can drop McTominay from the team.
Ten Hag is a man who rewards trust and loyalty, so you would expect the Dutchman to line up his team the same way at Old Trafford against Bournemouth this weekend.
If the Dutchman can get a similar tune out of the squad that he did against Chelsea, this could be a very fruitful few weeks for the former Ajax boss.
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