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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
MANCHESTER, England – Two weeks ago, Manchester United were a club in crisis after back-to-back defeats. Now, after a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford on Saturday night, they are ahead of Manchester City in the Premier League table.
In the space of an international hiatus, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has gone from answering questions about his future to answering questions about a possible title challenge. Bruno Fernandes’ second-half penalty, United’s first league home goal in 324 minutes, was enough to clinch a first league home win this season for the fifth time.
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Losing three of your first four home games would normally rule out any hope of ending the season with the trophy, but this is not a normal season. United are seven points behind leaders Tottenham with a game in hand and meetings with Southampton, West Ham, Sheffield United and Leeds before Christmas. After a start that has been hampered by a short preseason and two international breaks, United’s campaign can begin here. Solskjaer will hope so, although he later acknowledged that there is work to be done.
“It’s definitely not a step up in performance, but sometimes three points are more important than performance,” he said. “To move up the table, we have to play better. After an international break it is not easy, there is not much time to prepare for the game.
“We haven’t had a home win in the league this season. A lot was said and written, and it probably affected the players more than I would have liked, but it has.”
Solskjaer still has questions to answer, such as why were the first 45 minutes against West Brom so slow? Why were both Nemanja Matic and Fred needed in midfield against a team that hasn’t won all season and what does Donny van de Beek have to do to get a match?
Solskjaer may point to goalkeeper Sam Johnstone’s performance as one of the reasons the scoring was not more comfortable after the former United academy graduate made two good saves from Anthony Martial and another from Marcus Rashford. He also saved Fernandes’ first penalty attempt, only for video referee Peter Bankes to realize he had left his line early, giving the Portuguese midfielder a second chance to make amends.
It wouldn’t be United if there wasn’t a scare though, and they needed referee David Coote to overturn his decision to award a penalty for a Fernandes tackle to Conor Gallagher just 47 seconds into the second half after looking down the field. side monitor. Former United star-turned-expert Rio Ferdinand called Coote’s change of mind “shameful”, although Solskjaer insisted the key decisions were sound.
“They are very tight decisions, and he probably made two, not three, correct decisions on penalties because Sam was off the line,” he said.
At the final whistle, television cameras caught Fernandes puffing out his cheeks in relief and it was easy to see why. It wasn’t a performance that scared the rest of the league, but after back-to-back wins in the league for the first time this season and a welcome clean sheet, they are at least looking up rather than down.
Solskjaer’s United also have a history of gaining momentum. He won 14 of his first 17 games in charge after replacing José Mourinho and was unbeaten in 19 games last season. A similar streak during December and January this season would see United out of the title group with Tottenham, Chelsea and Leicester.
“We know we can play better than this and we certainly could have made him more comfortable with chances early on,” Solskjaer said. “When you don’t do that, there is always an advantage in the game. It was important to get that victory, you could see that, but we didn’t have the composure or the quality to get the second goal.”
Composure and quality in attacking areas are two things United needs to find if back-to-back victories over Everton and West Brom are to be a stepping stone rather than another flash of inconsistency.
In the space of 14 days, Solskjaer has gone from a dead man walking to jumping Pep Guardiola. In another fortnight, he will prepare to go head-to-head with Guardiola at Old Trafford, having either seized on a win over West Brom or backtracked towards the starting point.
