Before Sheffield United turned up to win their first game at Old Trafford since 1973, United were on the longest unbeaten league run of any team in Europe’s top five divisions. But as I expressed in my last Blog, one can never foretell the result of a match in which United are playing. We may beat the best in England. We may beat the best in Europe. But then we get eliminated from the Champions League by teams that are not considered as ‘top teams’. And we lose as we did to the bottom side in the Premier League, a team that had only won once all season, Sheffield United pulling off one of the shocks of the season as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side was beaten by Chris Wilder’s men.
The Reds went behind from the Blades first corner of the match, David De Gea being put under pressure and being unable to punch clear. The Home side had the ball in the net soon after, following their corner; however this time the referee disallowed the goal insisting that the Sheffield United keeper had been obstructed. Not easy to understand. Former Premier League referee Peter Walton explained that the VAR couldn’t review Anthony Martial’s disallowed goal because referee Peter Bankes had blown for a foul before the ball had crossed the line.
On this performance, it is not to easy to select the United player that had the most influence on the match. I would however opt for young Mason Greenwood, who was lively throughout and United’s brightest forward in a blunt first-half. He stung the palms of Aaron Ramsdale but he missed an excellent chance on his right foot early in the second, blazing wide a chance he would normally dispatch effortlessly. Not sure why he was subbed, as there were other players on the pitch who were much more ineffective.
Manchester United thus missed the opportunity to return to the top of the Premier League. This defeat has made a big dent in the Red Devils’ title aspirations and morale, and has brought us back down to Earth. We will see if United can exact revenge on Arsenal on Saturday, the latter having beaten United at Old Trafford last November. Since that loss United had engineered a 13-match unbeaten Premier League run. We all hope for a repeat.
Article contributed by Contributor Kenneth. Comments are appreciated on our Facebook page.