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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says all about this strange season in which Manchester United will be only a handful of points away from first place if they win the game in hand.
After a dismal start that saw three losses in their first four Premier League matches at home, the first four seemed like a fantastic idea for United, let alone a title challenge.
But after another prosaic performance and a first league win at home this season, courtesy of some beneficial VAR decisions, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team is making its way up the table.
Solskajer knows that his team must raise their bar if they are to have any chance of challenging near the top of the table and he was honest enough to admit it after this serendipitous victory.
But after a rocky start ruined by a short preseason and two international breaks, United’s campaign can effectively begin here, with no such interruptions between now and March.
(Image: Manchester United via Getty Imag)
“Now we will have three or four months together and it is about staying together, sticking together, sticking to the way we want to play and improving every time,” Solskjaer said.
“Defensively we are getting there, definitely. We are working hard, closing, not granting many opportunities, and creating enough opportunities to win this comfortably as well, but we must be more clinical.
“We have a lot of quality, but sometimes the easiest, or the most difficult, is to play simply.
“Sometimes today we wanted to make things too complicated. Yes, we want the players to seize the moments of opportunity, but we need more fluidity, more rhythm, more passing, to get the opposition moving.
Manchester United are looking to chart their way back to the top.
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may have missed Jadon Sancho in the summer, but he still made some big moves in the transfer market with Donny van de Beek, Alex Telles and Edinson Cavani arriving.
But their start to the season has been mixed, with a loss at home to Crystal Palace and a 6-1 win by Spurs at one end of the scale, and a tremendous 2-1 win over PSG in Paris in the other.
The question now is whether they can find the right balance.
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“It could have been easier. I know the players have been traveling in international service, and we only had this morning to prepare for this game.
“Hopefully we can achieve something like we did towards the end of last season.”
United midfielder Nemanja Matic echoed his boss, acknowledging that the performance was unacceptable for a team of such offensive quality, with ambitions to fight for the title.
“We are happy with the three points, but not with our performance,” said Matic. We have to do better.
(Image: Getty Images)
“When we score first we have to go ahead and kill the game as soon as possible, especially in the Premier League. We have to improve that.
“Each team has quality, each team is dangerous, but 1-0 is not enough. They almost scored, they had one on the crossbar. That is why they were always dangerous.
“We have to make sure that next time we have more focus on the attack and eliminate the game early.”
The game was decided by VAR. Referee David Coote awarded West Brom a penalty one minute into the second half when Bruno Fernandes dropped Conor Gallagher.
But Coote reversed his own decision after reviewing the incident on a courtside monitor, Fernandes getting the slightest touch on the ball before hitting Gallagher’s right shin.
Minutes later, United won a penalty when Darnell Furlong handled a Juan Mata cross, and Fernandes scored on the second down after goalkeeper Sam Johnstone came off his line too early.
That was enough to secure back-to-back league victories for United for the first time since last season, when a 14-game unbeaten streak saw them take third place on the final day.
A similar streak is needed now if United are to get through such a miserable start to the season and show they can be in the mix for the title this peculiar season.
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