Lucky, lucky Man United! Varane gives the Red Devils an undeserved win

Ahead of the first match of the new season, all eyes were on Manchester United. With some good players brought in (Mount, Onana, Hojlund) and others waiting to arrive, and playing at home against team destined for relegation by some TV pundits, and easy win was expected. After all, only Man City (52) took more Premier League home points last season with United putting together six wins on the bounce in the final matches of last campaign. In fact, they won 13 of their final 15 PL home games. And today there was no surprise, the Red Devils opened another Premier League campaign with a 1-0. And that just about all the good news which fans will take home after they exit Old Trafford.

Everything else was worrying. Manchester were outplayed, Manchester were beaten, Manchester had Onana and Manchester had a lots of luck. Without any credit, they will take three points, but coach Erik ten Hag will have a sleepless night. Wolverhampton lost coach Julen Lopetegui just days before the season start, since the Spaniard got no real reinforcements, and yet saw some of his players going from the club. In came Gary O'Neil, who did wonders with Bournemouth last season, but after tonight’s 90 minutes, it didn’t looked bad on the pitch. In fact, it was the other way around. Manchester looked like a team which had only five days to prepare under a new manager and not the Wolves. The guests were quicker, stronger in the duels, hard to shift out of shape, and created better openings than United. But as so many times in the last few seasons, the Red Devils scored out of nothing and won the game.

The hosts had the first chance of the game in the 11th minute, but Rashford didn’t score. At that moment, it looked like it was just matter of time when Manchester will score. But it all turned around very quickly and Wolves looked dangerous in the last 15 minutes of the first half. The guests looked even more dangerous in the second half, and Cunha, along with Sarabia and Fabio Silva all had (too) many wasted chances, either due to their unefiecency, or either due to Onana’s great saves. And even thou Varane scored in the 76th minute for the win, it was the Cameroonian keeper who really saved United. The scale of United’s fear was visible when Ten Hag introduced McTominay instead of Marcus Rashford 10 minutes from time. In the last minutes there were shouts for penalty as Onana tackled Kalajdzic, but VAR decided it was not worth the penalty. In another stadium, against another team…

PREMIER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1

Friday

Burnley - Manchester City 0-3 (0-2)

/Haaland 4, 36, Rodri 76/

Saturday

Arsenal - Nottingham Forest 2-1 (2-0)

/Nketiah 26, Saka 32 - Awoniyi 82/

Everton - Fulham 0-1 (0-0)

/De Cordova-Reid 73/

Brighton - Luton 4-1 (1-0)

/March 36, Joao Pedro 71 pen, Adingra 85, Ferguson 90+5 - Morris 81 pen/

Sheffield United - Crystal Palace 0-1 (0-0)

/Edouard 50/

Bournemouth - West Ham 1-1 (0-0)

/Solanke 82 - Bowen 51/

Newcastle United - Aston Villa 5-1 (2-1)

/Tonali 6, Isak 16, 58, Wilson 77, Barnes 90+1 - Diaby 11/

Sunday

Brentford - Tottenham 2-2 (2-2)

/Mbeumo 26, Wissa 36 - Romero 11, Royal 45-4/

Chelsea - Liverpool 1-1 (1-1)

/Disasi 37 - Diaz 18/

Monday

Man.Utd. - Wolverhampton 1-0 (0-0)

/Varane 76/