Manchester United till now has had a pretty solid Premier League season reaching the top of the table in January 2021 and currently at the second position on the league standings. For the first time since 2012 United was able to top the table, a lot of the credits goes to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his subtle but quite significant overhaul of the squad. Players like Bruno Farnandes, Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford are showing phenomenal performances, time in time out proving their capabilities and how they can play crucial roles for their club. With United facing Chelsea in the league’s biggest game of the weekend at Stamford Bridge, let’s take a look at United’s journey till now this League season.
United had a rocky start to the season with a 1-3 loss against Crystal Palace at home. It was the first time they lost their opening game since the 2014-15 season. The next match against Brighton & Hove Albion Marcus Rashford scored the 10,000th goal of the club’s history after an own goal by Brighton’s Lewis Dunk, the final whistle was blown with the score at 2-2 only to receive a penalty from VAR for a handball by Neal Maupay. Bruno Farnanades scored the penalty to give United their first league win this season.
Facing former United manager José Mourinho’s team Tottenham Hotspur at home the next match, Bruno opened the scoreboard with an early penalty but Spurs soon enough scored 2 goals taking the lead. Spurs did not stop there, they hit the net 4 more times giving Tottenham a 6-1 victory. It was United’s biggest defeat in their history. It was also Ole’s most colossal defeat as a manager.
After the absolute humiliation against Tottenham, United got a 4-1 win against Newcastle United. A 0-0 draw with Chelsea and 0-1 loss with Arsenal, United wasn’t in a very good position. They urgently needed to win more games and that’s exactly what they did. United won their next 4 consecutive games to quickly climb the league table from 15th to 6th place. They drew 0-0 with Manchester City in their derby but won their next 2 games, notably a 6-2 grand victory against Leeds United got them to 3rd place in the League standing. It was their first league game since 2011 in which they scored more than 5 goals.
They reached 2nd place on the table after 2 decisive wins after a draw with Leicester City. They won their next game against Burnley 1-0 with Pogba kicking a volley to the net taking them to the top of the Premier League table, 3 points ahead of defending champions Liverpool. United remained on the top of the table for the next 2 games in which they drew 0-0 against archrival Liverpool and won 2-1 with Fulham.
Things took a bad turn after they lost their next match 1-2 against Sheffield United breaking their 13 match streak of not losing a match and sending them to 2nd place in the league standing. Things got better as United have not lost a single match in the last 5 games with a massive 9-0 win against Southampton on their first match of February equaling their biggest home win in the Premier League back in 1995.
United still have to work really hard to win the Premier League title this season with tough competition from rivals like Manchester City, Leicester CIty and Chelsea fighting to lift the league trophy this season.
Written By: Nafee Ahnaf
Edited By: Raynul Huda Chowdhury