What a start Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is having at United for his managerial career. He became the second manager in the history of Manchester United to win the first four matches in his managerial career and equal the old feat of Matt Busby in 1946. It was a different game compared to the previous 3 in which Manchester United dominated from the start scoring plenty in the first half. But today, ManUtd couldnt put anything in the net in the first half but Solskjaer made super substitution which won the game in the second half.
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It was not the dominant performance like the previous campaign as United failed to create clear-cut attacking opportunities in the entire first half. It was the same for Newcastle United too. Most of the time, the ball was played in the midfield. For Newcastle, Rondon couldnt utilize the error by Phil Jones when he was dispossessed by Perez for Newcastle. Rondon also headed softly over the crossbar from another good chance after the cross by Yedlin. There was very little for United in the first half. Newcastles keeper Dubravka got better of Rashford and Mata in a couple of occasions to deny United.
In the second half, United was a better team creating an amount of attacking moves and had high possession but was still struggling for goals. The other struggle was Jonjo Shelvey who was getting precise pass upfront utilizing the gaps in ManUtd defense but Perez again couldnt utilize it. In an hour mark, Solskjaer responded with 2 attacking substitute in the form of Romelo Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez. It only took 38 seconds for Lukaku to score. He scored in his first touch after Dubravka failed to collect Rashfords free-kick.
United added the second goal in a counter-attack which involved Lukaku, Sanchez, and Rashford. With just 10 minutes to go, Lukaku hard work down the right pulled most of the Newcastle players and provided plenty of space for Sanchez who found Rashford. All Rashford has to do was to beat Dubravka which he did calmly to double the lead. Later, Pogba failed to guide the ball in open goal after getting better of Dubravka but it was a tight angle.
Thus, it was the fourth win in a row for United under Solskjaer. More importantly, United was able to keep the clean sheet this time. It was just a third clean sheet in 21 games which is pretty unusual for standards of de Gea at the goal. But such has been the season of Manchester United. More importantly, United is closing to top 4 which looked unlikely a couple weeks ago. After Chelsea failed to win against Southampton, United is just 6 points away from top four and 3 points behind Arsenal.