Manchester United have returned to the top four at Tottenham's expense after beating Brentford 1-0 at home on Wednesday night.
Many members of the Old Trafford faithful may have had one eye on what was going on in East London, as top four rivals Newcastle took on West Ham at the London Stadium. The Red Devils and the Magpies went into their respective clashes level on 50 points.
Revenge was the task at hand for United after August's 4-0 humbling at Brentford and Marcus Rashford sent his side on their way. The England ace bagged his 27th goal of the campaign just before the half-hour mark, a delightful side-footed volley from close range.
The strike ended Rashford's four-game run without a goal and just allowed the hosts some breathing room. Brentford failed to put United under any real pressure for the remainder of the first half and Thomas Frank cut a frustrated, rain-sodden figure on the touchline.
It took over an hour, but the visitors finally formed a chance mid-way through the second half, but David de Gea made himself to big to thwart Kevin Schade's effort when the German came baring down on goal one on one.
United held on to register what could prove to be a very important three points.
Mirror Football has analysed five talking points from a hard-fought United victory.
Rashford's magnificent display
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United's number 10 was undoubtedly the best performer on the pitch, regardless of his well-taken goal.
Rashford delivered the kind of performance that has made him such a handful for defenders this season. While his goal is the thing that means the most, a sublime piece of skill in the opening exchanges of the second-half represented the kind of confidence he is playing with.
The forward picked the ball up out wide and ran at Pontus Jansson with eye-watering pace. Rashford then proceeded to back-heel chop the ball onto the other side of the defender, leaving the Brentford ace beaten all ends up.
The clatter of people getting up out of their seats was audible to those in attendance.
250 not out for Shaw but problem arises
Left-back Luke Shaw reached an impressive milestone against Brentford as he recorded his 250th appearance in a United shirt.
Only David de Gea, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have played more for United of the current crop.
The achievement comes just one day after the England international put pen to paper on a new deal with the club, extending his stay at Old Trafford until the summer of 2027 at the earliest.
Things hardly got off to the best off starts when he was shown a yellow card for clattering into Ivan Toney just 24 minutes in. It got worse around 12 minutes later however.
Shaw was hauled off in place of Tyrell Malacia after sustaining a hamstring injury, meaning his 250th United outing was one of his shortest.
Sancho starts but underwhelms
Ten Hag opted to hand Jadon Sancho a rare start for the visit of Brentford, just the third league start he has enjoyed for United this calendar year.
Remarkably, Sancho enjoyed more touches of the ball in the opening 10 minutes of this contest than team-mate Wout Weghorst did in his entire performance away at Newcastle on Sunday afternoon.
In truth, the former Borussia Dortmund struggled to weave his magic for large portions of the game and was not impacting proceedings as much as Ten Hag would have hoped.
Perhaps the anonymous display is understandable given Sancho's lengthy period out this term, but Ten Hag will surely want more from the £73m man in what is the business end of the season, who was withdrawn with 20 minutes to spare.
David Raya-watch
United have a number of positions that fans would argue could do with an upgrade, but goalkeeper is a role that has long divided opinion among the fanbase.
Those of the belief that De Gea is past it and need to be moved on would have had one eye on the man between the sticks for the opposition, with Bees goalkeeper David Raya one shot-stopper linked with a move to Old Trafford.
An international colleague of De Gea's, Raya has just one year left to run on his Brentford contract and it is public knowledge he has snubbed their latest extension offer.
He could do very little about United's opener, with Rashford lashing home at such speed the ball was in the back of the net before Raya could react.
De Gea's own kicking only helped make Raya look better, with United's number one guilty of some wayward passes. A few neat saves would have further helped Raya's cause in the eyes of the Red Devils hierarchy.
What this result means
Unfortunately for United, if Newcastle were to win at West Ham the Red Devils would be unable to leapfrog them this evening and as a result the highest they could hope for would be fourth.
Both United and Newcastle have still played a game less than top four rivals Tottenham even after Wednesday night, meaning it is Spurs who are left sweating over this set of results more than either of Ten Hag or Howe's troops.
As it happened, the Magpies secured all three points against the Hammers in comfortable fashion, meaning they remained third. United's win means they rise one position into the much-coveted fourth spot.
For Brentford, their second league defeat of 2023 leaves them in ninth, level on points with Liverpool but having played one game more.
