Quite what this draw does for Erik ten Hag is unknown but it may just spare him the indignity of what seemed an inevitability had Manchester United slumped to a damaging defeat at Aston Villa. Maybe. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford, Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox, United’s top brass, had the best seats in the house and will surely review Ten Hag’s position over the international break. Bruno Fernandes cracked the crossbar with a fine free-kick and United’s performance was hardly disgraceful but their last win came against Barnsley and it is five games without victory in all competitions.
United are 14th after taking eight points from their first seven matches, their worst start to a Premier League season and their lowest tally at this stage since 1989-90, when they staggered to a mid-table finish under Sir Alex Ferguson, also in the stands here. Ten Hag took comfort in the positives, Fernandes’s free-kick from 20 yards, a fourth league clean sheet, the reward for an organised display, the resilience and an unlikely player-of-the-match performance from Jonny Evans, a bizarre beacon of hope in the twilight of his career. But, really, who is he kidding?
United have failed to score in their past three league games and have five goals in seven matches – only Southampton have fewer – and while United could have won they did not dazzle but flattered to deceive.
Rasmus Højlund was shackled, Diego Carlos ushering him aside like a nightclub doorman, and the second-half arrivals of Antony and Joshua Zirkzee never looked like scaring Unai Emery’s side. Villa, though, seemed jaded from their midweek exertions, the small matter of maintaining their 100% start to the Champions League by beating Bayern Munich.
At first glance the United team sheet felt like a strange act of self-sabotage by Ten Hag, with Evans and Harry Maguire parachuted into the heart of defence in place of Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martínez. Ten Hag’s team selection prompted Gary Neville to joke he thought he and his brother, Phil, might be lining up at full-back. De Ligt was required at half-time, however, after Maguire hobbled off at the interval with the steadying assistance of two United medical staff, and the England international left wearing a protective boot, another headache Ten Hag could do without.
Villa’s dynamic attack were presumably licking their lips at the prospect of running Evans and Maguire ragged. But while Morgan Rogers found plenty of joy on the half-turn, driving into holes behind Kobbie Mainoo and Christian Eriksen, it did not go entirely to plan.
A grey afternoon in Birmingham took an ominous shape for United when Eriksen was booked for biting at Rogers’ heels inside two and a half minutes, and a few minutes later Rogers roamed forward and cannoned an effort that smacked the hoardings and rippled the rear of André Onana’s net. Some of the Villa fans in the North Stand, down the opposite end, thought it was in. United conceded a series of cheap free-kicks, a dangerous move given Villa’s record from set pieces, though it was Fernandes who went closest from a dead ball in the second half. Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford flickered but struggled to penetrate Villa’s defence.
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Evans, an emergency signing last year, was not supposed to be here still, heading crosses away at the core of this spluttering United machine, but was arguably their best player. Dimitar Berbatov, working as a television pundit, said Evans taking home the player-of-the-match award should embarrass his teammates. “Every other player on that pitch should be ashamed,” the former United striker said.
“Jonny Evans is a red,” crooned the away support as he emerged with the ball after a timely tackle on Rogers before halting Ross Barkley moments later. It was Evans who sniffed the danger when Rogers, again profiting from space behind United’s defence and midfield, freed Ollie Watkins. Onana later saved well from Youri Tielemans, unmarked on the edge of the D, after United switched off at a corner.
Rashford had the game’s first effort, snatching the ball from Matty Cash on halfway before driving down the left. Rashford stepped inside Barkley and lashed a right-foot shot, triggering a smart save from Emiliano Martínez. The Villa goalkeeper made a similar stop a few minutes after the break, after Mainoo played in Rashford down the left. Midway through the second half Martínez was beaten by Fernandes, whose free-kick clattered the crossbar. Antony, on in place of the cautioned Rashford, sent a first-time effort wide from the rebound. Ten Hag rocked back in his chair. Emery did similar when Diogo Dalot denied Jaden Philogene, after Ian Maatsen’s cross dribbled to him at the back post.
As the game ticked into stoppage time, there was a delay owing to the referee Rob Jones’s defective headset. It remains to be seen how much battery life is left in Ten Hag’s reign.
