Views: 0
- Re-live the action from Saturday night’s Premier League clash at St James’ Park
- Nick Pope’s shoulder issue adds to a long list of senior injured stars for hosts
- Manchester United in a mess – they have a collapse in them – It’s All Kicking Off
-
Manchester United were forced to travel here by bus. They duly attempted to park it in their own penalty area, left it in reverse and, come the end, were sifting through the wreckage of a car-crash performance that shows how far down the road they are behind the other United, the one of Newcastle, who were magnificent and warmed the soul of their supporters on a sub-zero evening.
For this was a one-zero annihilation, the narrowest of scorelines but proof of the ever-widening gap between the teams.
-
Remarkably, only this victory – thanks to the excellent Anthony Gordon’s second-half strike – took Eddie Howe’s team above their visitors in the Premier League. Now, for the first time in more than a century, Newcastle have beaten Man United in three straight games.
We could have played for another 100 years and you wouldn’t have fancied Man United to score. For once, the issues were not with their goalkeeper.
-
Erik Ten Hag spent much of his pre-match taking questions on Andre Onana. He answered one by keeping faith with him. One comment in the wake of his latest calamity at Galatasaray suggested Onana could be football’s first ‘false one’. There were a few in red jerseys faking it here.
It was not just in Manchester where they were talking about the stopper. Howe, much like Onana can shots on his goal, had also sidestepped a question about the Cameroonian on Friday. He prefers his players to shoot down the opposition on a Saturday, and this was a display he happily labeled one of their best of the season, and that’s a competitive field.
The only surprise was that it took 55 minutes to score, and that it remained the only goal. Bruno Guimaraes found the overlapping Kieran Trippier and he threaded a first-time cross through the goalmouth, where the only taker was Gordon, converting at the far post having stolen two yards on the shoulder of Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
This was Gordon’s sixth of the season. That he scored only seven during the entirety of his time at Everton shows the improvement under Howe. The winger would have been a keen observer of the Euro 2024 draw a couple of hours before kick-off. In this form, he surely has to be given a cap during the March internationals.
Howe has challenged him to add goals to his game and, at St James’ especially – four in a row here now – it feels like a basketball would drop in a golf hole for the 22-year-old.
Who would Gareth Southgate leave out, given his wealth of talent in those wide areas? Well, if he was watching this from Hamburg, he had his answer – Marcus Rashford. The Man United forward lasted a little over an hour and you got the impression that was 62 minutes too many for him.
His body language shortly before being hooked was telling, slowing to a petulant walk after Gordon had escaped him on the left. He was, however, never going anything more than a canter in the first place.
Off he came, joined by the equally ineffective Anthony Martial, who had rowed with Ten Hag in the first half. That was more fight than he showed at any other time. To think, Martial is one short of joining Eric Cantona on 64 Premier League goals for the club.
Did he ever look like drawing level here? Not a chance. Literally, not a single chance for the centre-forward. This contest was played at the other end of the park.
Onana’s first involvement was, mercifully for him, with his feet. Indeed, Diogo Dalot’s back-pass was Man United’s only completed pass inside the opening four minutes. Dalot, however, clearly had little faith in his team-mate’s hands, stealing from Onana’s grasp inside the goalmouth on 10 minutes.
+9View galleryHarry Maguire performed well at the back for United as his good form continues but he could not prevent Gordon from getting the opener
