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Manchester United’s hopes of matching Sir Alex Ferguson’s treble in 1999 may have been extinguished with their exit from the Champions League group stage, but they can still reproduce a feat established by one of the club’s best teams.
Ahead of their clash in Fulham on Wednesday night, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are chasing a 17th straight Premier League game on the road without a defeat when they visit Craven Cottage.
The club’s record stands at 17 when Fergie’s triple winners saw their streak come to an abrupt halt when they were beaten 5-0 by Chelsea in October 1999, following a streak that had started 10 months earlier when they drew 1- 1 at Aston Villa. .
Solskjaer’s side have been unbeaten since curiously beginning their 16-game streak at Chelsea in February, when they won 2-0 thanks to goals from Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire.
Their streak is now over a year old and their last loss was at Liverpool when goals from Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah brought the Reds one step closer to the Premier League title last January.
While they are favorites to continue their undefeated streak on the struggling side of Scott Parker who is battling relegation, they will have to watch out for past omens.
United take on Fulham after winning a point at Liverpool in their previous away game, and it was at Anfield that Fergie’s United scored their last undefeated road game before suffering humiliation in West London, a fate that could happen to United on Wednesday night.
However, United’s current streak is more impressive than Fergie’s team, as they scored 40 points from their 16 games compared to the treble winners who scored five points less from their 17 games.
True, United have benefited from playing 14 of their games behind closed doors in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak and their career has been threatened on at least a couple of occasions.
At Tottenham, in their first game after Project Restart, they were with one goal less with nine minutes remaining before being rescued by a Bruno Fernandes penalty.
While at Southampton earlier this season they were 2-0 down with half an hour to play before Fernandes hit again and Edinson Cavani scored twice in the final 16 minutes to turn the game around.
Although Fergie’s team achieved many draws in his career, he also recorded some famous victories, including an 8-1 win at Nottingham Forest, where Solskjaer came off the bench to score four goals.
The game stood as the Premier League’s record win on the road for 20 years until Leicester defeated Southampton 9-0.
Leicester, however, was on the wrong side of a beating on Filbert Street in 1999 when Dwight Yorke scored a hat-trick for the Red Devils in a 6-2 victory.
The longest undefeated escape from home in the Premier League comes from Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ team, who had been undefeated throughout the 2003-04 campaign in the top flight.
That streak, along with a 27-game unbeaten road record held since April 2003, ended when they were beaten 2-0 at Manchester United in October 2004.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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