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Since the 2-0 defeat in Liverpool on January 19, 2020, Manchester United have not been on the losing side of a Premier League match outside of Old Trafford.
The club’s incredible undefeated streak has lasted for over 12 months and has been led by Bruno Fernandes again since his arrival from Sporting Lisbon that same month.
The United club’s record of 17 consecutive Premier League away games without a loss, set by the club’s treble winners in 1999, was equaled by the current crop of players thanks to their 2-1 win at Fulham la last week.
Now his quest will be to take a step better than one of the club’s most legendary teams, but in the path of that goal is Arsenal, where Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team has lost four of its last five games in the top flight.
However, United could not wish to go to Emirates Stadium with a better streak on their travels, but who and what has been behind their incredible streak on the road?
Here, Sportsmail calculates the numbers to see what statistical trends have been behind United’s 12-month unbeaten streak on the road, and if it can help them pass the test of one of their least favorite hunting grounds in recent seasons.
Return of the team
Since a checkered 2-0 win at Chelsea in mid-February last year, with goals from the heads of Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire, United’s form on the road has gone from strength to strength, scoring 43 points.
A 17-game streak in the league has seen them win 13 of those and tie the other four, the last of which came in Everton and Tottenham last season and Leicester and Liverpool this season.
In fact, the Toffees have the next-best road record in the league over the same time frame, having collected a comparatively modest 28 points from their 16 games, but that has included six losses.
Also, as has been the case this season in general with the club’s propensity to go a goal behind, the away run statistics once again show how well Solskjaer’s United react when the game turns against them. .
They were at least one goal behind in nine of the 17 games that make up their current road trip streak, and came from behind to win all but two of them, while leading by at least one goal in 14 of those games.
The most recent comeback win came last week when Ademola Lookman put Fulham ahead at Craven Cottage last week, only for Edinson Cavani and Paul Pogba to turn the tables in United’s favor.
That ability to bounce back has seen United earn an incredible 23 points after losing positions, a total of more than double that of any other team in the league.
Tottenham and West Ham are next on the list, but with 10 points and seven points earned at those positions respectively.
Furthermore, a look at United’s possession stats and cruelty in front of goal shows why counterattack remains such a devastating tactic for them.
United’s 17-game possession average sits just below 55 percent, suggesting they haven’t sought to smother the opposition before striking, but are simply aiming to land regular killing blows.
That counterattack system requires crisp and precise passing, and his overall pass accuracy of 84 percent seems to reflect that.
The additions of Fernandes and Cavani have certainly helped with their final product, with United scoring 38 goals on the road in the race, seeing them averaging more than two goals per game.
The next best comeback in the league in terms of goals scored in their travels again is Tottenham, who have scored 29 times, albeit in one less Premier League game.
There is not a great disparity between the shots that United have taken and those that have conceded, since the full-back has finished 223 times while he has faced 210.
But the difference comes in the way United managed to make 97 of those efforts on target, while their rivals have managed to test or beat United’s stopper with just 57 of those efforts.
Given that United have lagged behind in seven of their away games since February, it’s no wonder that Solskjaer’s men have scored more goals in the second half than in the first.
The club have scored 15 goals in the first half of their away games, while 23 resounding have come in the second half of their top flight games, six of which came in the Cavani-inspired comeback of two goals in Southampton and the 4-1 victory at Newcastle, when Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Aaron Wan-Bissaka scored in the 85th minute.
That victory at St James’ Park represents one of only three times United have won by three goals in their trips to the Premier League in the past calendar year, their largest margin of victory, after 3-0 victories. at Brighton and Aston Villa will also occur after the reboot in 2019/20.
Only four goals have come from a penalty in that time while half of the efforts that have found the net have been from set pieces.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the field, United have conceded less than half of the goals they have scored, with David de Gea and Dean Henderson allowing just 14 goals from rival players between them.
Only Ederson has a better record away from home in this period, with Manchester City having conceded 13 goals, although they have played a game less than their city rivals.
Seven clean sheets have come out of those games for United, and only two mistakes have been made that led to goals, and Henderson’s mistake at former club Sheffield United constitutes one of them.
Only Arsenal and Burnley have kept more clean sheets than United’s two blocks, and those two sides along with Man City are the only teams that can boast a better clean sheet percentage than the Red Devils’ 41 percent.
A set piece may have been part of United’s undoing in their surprising loss to the Blades midweek, but they seem to have some kind of understanding to defend them away from home, with only five of the 14 goals left. enter such situations.
The brilliance of Bruno Fernandes
Portuguese master midfielder Fernandes has been recognized as one of the main factors behind United’s resurgence in domestic affairs.
The 26-year-old has set an example on the field and with his leadership in the locker room, and the former is certainly reflected in his days away statistics.
The United star tops the charts for goals scored and assists recorded since February 2020 away from home for any player in the Premier League, having scored 12 of United’s 38 goals and established seven more goals for his teammates.
Fernandes also leads the charge in both halves, having scored five of his goals in the first half and seven in the second, which has not been surpassed by any of his teammates.
Rashford may have scored just one league goal at home this season, but he’s clearly been influential away from Old Trafford as well.
Six of the seven away goals he has scored in this streak have come this season, while he has also recorded six assists over the course of 17 games, putting him in second place to the Spurs’ Harry Kane in the most. of assists in the period of time.
The breakdown of goals in the two halves also demonstrates the impact Cavani has had in the run-up to goal and Paul Pogba’s decisive impact on recent results.
France’s World Cup winner has scored four league goals away from home in United’s streak, all of which have come in the second half of matches, including impressive recent winners in Burnley and Fulham.
Meanwhile, Uruguayan forward Cavani has scored three of his four United away goals in the second half, two of which came in the comeback he and Fernandes led at St Mary’s in late November.
Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood have played a more peripheral role in the goal scoring machine, but they make up the top six of most goals scored with three apiece, and the pair have scored twice in the first half of the matches they constitute the undefeated streak.
Center-back Harry Maguire sits just behind the duo with two headed goals at Stamford Bridge and St James’ Park, while the United captain has also played more minutes than any of his teammates.
Heading into the weekend’s visit to Arsenal, the English defender has played 1,530 minutes away, more than 100 minutes more than Fernandes, who is next on the list with 1,422 minutes on the field during this streak.
So what went wrong for United at Arsenal?
While United targets that club, a record 18 league games without a loss, he will travel by early Saturday afternoon to a field where he has struggled to perform in recent seasons.
His last two league trips to the Emirates have seen 2-0 setbacks, with Nicolas Pepe and Sokratis securing Mikel Arteta’s first win as Arsenal manager on New Year’s Day last year.
In 2018/19, David de Gea miscalculated a Granit Xhaka effort from range before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sealed the points for the Gunners from penalty spot.
United’s most recent victory at the Emirates Stadium came two months before that loss, knocking the Gunners out of the FA Cup in the fourth round in January 2019.
And a look at the stats compared to their most recent setbacks offers an explanation for where they have gone wrong in recent seasons, but why their current career offers hope of ending their routine in North London.
Alexis Sánchez, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial got it right in the FA Cup game two years ago, in which United scored on goal eight times.
Half of them went on goal, with a Paul Pogba shot at halftime that Petr Cech pushed in Martial’s way for a decisive third goal in the other effort.
However, their ability to repeat such precision in front of goal has been lacking most recently at the Emirates Stadium, with their top flight win over Arsenal in the last five calendar years in December 2017.
Opportunity creation has not been a problem for Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta’s team, having tried to test Bernd Leno with 14 shots in March 2019 and with 10 on New Year’s Day last year.
However, both games ended without United being able to beat the German international, with an apparent lack of cruelty behind their inability to register their team on the tally sheet of the four attempts they made in those two games.
Meanwhile, the Gunners had exactly the same number of shots as United in both games, but were able to forge two goals from three shots on target and as many outscored David de Gea from their four on target in their most recent clash in the North. London.
However, with Cavani and Fernandes now playing a prominent role in scoring goals, United’s efficiency, while still not in line with their other big ambitions, has certainly improved.
Forty-four percent of their shots during this undefeated road run have come on target, compared with 29 percent of their shots the last time they made the journey south to Emirates Stadium.
United surpassed possession, at 52 percent and 54 percent, on their most recent two visits and their passing accuracy reached 81 and 85 percent in the pair of games.
Now, if they can add the final, albeit hardest, element to the puzzle, they may find themselves sealing only their second league win at Arsenal since their 2-1 win in November 2014.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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