Manchester United, in the second game in the English Football League in which Cristiano Ronaldo returned to start, couldn’t get more than a zero in Newcastle’s reception today, at Old Trafford.
Coach Erik Ten Hag had only once bet on the Portuguese forward for the championship title, in the defeat to Brentford (4-0) directly in the second round, but today, without Martial, injured and with Rashford on the bench , the formula repeated.
Cristiano Ronaldo was on the pitch for 71 minutes when the Dutch coach decided to replace the striker with Rashford, a substitution that clearly caused the Portuguese’s displeasure and shook his head until he sat down on the bench.
Rashford could have solved it in the last minute of the game (90+5), but missed Casemiro’s trivela cross.
The draw ends United’s streak of three consecutive wins, between the Championship and the Europa League, and keeps the team in fifth position (16 points), one point more than their opponents today, with Newcastle in sixth place.
The afternoon of this 11th round games also saw the important 2-0 victory for Chelsea, fourth place, in the difficult ground of Aston Villa, with Steven Gerrard’s team in 16th position, close to the places of relegation.
The Blues, who played their sixth game under Graham Potter, with five wins and a draw after Thomas Tuchel was sacked, won virtually, with Mason Mount taking advantage of an ill-measured deflection from a defender in the six minutes.
In the second half, that same Mount, who has not yet scored this season, executed an impeccable free kick and made it 2-0 for the Londoners in the 65th minute.
At the same time, Southampton (18th) and West Ham (11th) drew 1-1 at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton.
League-leader Arsenal’s game is still taking place at Leeds United’s home, having started later due to an outage that prevented the referee from communicating, in a round that will later conclude with the classic Liverpool-Manchester City.
Source: DN
