By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
Rising from the embarrassing 6-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspurs at the Old Trafford, Manchester United performed late minutes miracle goals that saved their image at Newcastle at the weekend.
The Premier League match, which Manchester United started on wrong foot, conceding an early minute goal, confirmed the doubts of pundits on the the technical competence of the manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
It took the individual brilliance of Bruno Fernandes and Juan Mata to end the game 4-1 for Manchester United in less than five minutes to the end of the encounter at St. James’ Park on Saturday.
Fernandes ran the full gamut of emotions in the win over Newcastle United — from his early disallowed goal, to the penalty kick he saw saved, to his spectacular winner in the 86th minute — as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side looked well off the pace of a side with Premier League title aspirations.
No one will be more delighted than Solskjaer as he is likely to retain his position for another day.
Against Newcastle, who defend as deep as anyone in the PL, Man United had zero clever ideas.
Newcastle went 1-0 ahead after 103 seconds, and there wasn’t much Man United could have done about it.
Jonjo Shelvey found Emil Krafth down the right flank and played the Swede into acres of space. Krafth crossed the ball into the box, but Shaw got a foot to it not far away and sent the ball bounding high into the air and the opposite direction to which David de Gea was moving.
Manchester United enjoyed the lion’s share of possession from that moment onward but created very little without Fernandes at the heart of play.
He put the ball in the back of the net with a blistering strike from the corner of the penalty area, but the Portuguese saw his goal ruled out after Juan Mata was a half-yard offside before playing the ball back to Fernandes.
Four minutes later, in the 23rd, Harry Maguire rose above Federico Fernandez to head home Mata’s corner kick and pull Man United level.
De Gea denied Callum Wilson on the first golden scoring chance in the second half.
Wilson got on the end of a Jamal Lewis cross and poked the ball toward goal from six yards out. He didn’t get enough on the finish, though, as De Gea was able to quickly dive to his left and palm the ball away.
Karl Darlow added to his string of standout performances when he denied Fernandes from the penalty spot in the 58th minute. Lewis was deemed, following video review, to have fouled Marcus Rashford atop the penalty area.
Shelvey, marking the near post, heroically headed the ball off the line after Maguire sent it goal-bound again from the ensuing corner kick.
Rashford deserves a healthy share of credit on the winner as well, because it was his long dribble and clever pass that set up Fernandes for an incredibly tough finish from a tight angle near the end line.
Rashford cut the ball back for Fernandes, who dropped his shoulder and lifted it over Darlow and into the upper-90 at the far post.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Rashford added goals in the 90th and 95th minutes to make the final score far more comfortable than the 90 minutes had actually been.