United Stays Top

Leicester City went top and then it was the turn of Manchester City. The gauntlet was thrown down to Manchester United. Can they match that? I say we did well to show character and mentality to match that.

Shocking Start

Playing Fulham at Craven Cottage always brings back memories of some narrow 3-2s when they just got promoted into the Premier League and a season before that. Also a very significant hard-fought 2-1 win on our way to the league title in 2006-07. We got off to a horrible start in our latest encounter. Fulham needed all of five minutes to take the lead. Like the United players, I thought Ademola Lookman was offside for the goal but to my astonishment, it wasn’t reviewed and disallowed on VAR. As it turns out, it was just a bad goal to concede. They caught us napping.


Strong Response But Disjointed Attack

On the hindsight, it was a good time to concede because it woke us up and we started battling with them for the ball. Slowly, we got more control of the game. While we grew into the game, our attacking play was disjointed. Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw were playing like strangers, not on the same wavelength for most of the game. Mason Greenwood was playing without any confidence. It’s sad to see a promising youngster playing like that. I am still holding out hope that he would be able to re-discover his confidence very soon. As Bruno Fernandes’ influence grew into the game, so did United’s. He was unlucky to see a shot crash off the post but was instrumental in our equaliser. He put in a hopeful cross that was fumbled by Alphonse Areola and his former Paris-Saint Germain team-mate, Edinson Cavani was on hand to produce a typical poacher’s finish.

Cavani & Pogba

Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has repeatedly described Cavani as someone who offers something different in the forward line. I believe that he is the only one that offers what a striker should provide for a big club like Manchester United. He should be starting more matches than not. Paul Pogba got us the winner with a moment of quality. It is encouraging to see that someone other than Fernandes is proving himself to be a match-winner. Pogba has the quality to do it, now is a matter of achieving consistency and maturity.


Missed Chances, Saved Attempts & Luck

We could have scored more than the two goals we scored to give us a comfortable end to the match. Harry Maguire was guilty of a poor miss from a free header. Cavani had a header well saved by Areola but besides that, there were some half-chances that maybe we could have done better with. Fulham is a well-organised, physical side and they made it difficult for us to find a way through. We helped them too by giving away possession cheaply on more than one occasion. We had David De Gea to thank for saving a shot from Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Loftus-Cheek was a handful for Fred and Shaw on at least two occasions. We were also lucky that Aleksandar Mitrovic’s header deflected off Eric Bailly and trickled wide of the post.

One Game At A Time

We could have played better but I feel we showed great spirit and strong mentality to bring home the three points and regain the lead on top of the table. I conclude by saying that there is still room for improvement. One game at a time.

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