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When it seemed that Manchester United first approached ending their 26-year title drought in 1993, their superstitious fans refused to put them in danger by singing songs about winning the league.
There are no fans at Old Trafford, or anywhere else in the Premier League, at this time. But nearly three decades later, it’s not hard to imagine the same emotions taking over her if there were fans in the stands.
Because United and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, ridiculed, ridiculed and criticized for most of their two years in charge, have placed themselves in a position of contention, almost when no one was looking.
Friday’s 2-1 win over Aston Villa put them on the same level as their old rivals Liverpool at the top of the Premier League. Other than the first weekend of the 2016-17 campaign, that situation hasn’t existed since 2009.
It has created the delightful prospect of a rare meeting between England’s two biggest and most successful clubs at Anfield on January 17, when both can dream of title glory.
Beating a greatly improved Villa brought United’s current unbeaten streak in the Premier League to 10 games. Eight of those games have been wins.
The only time United have had a streak of that length, with so many wins, since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 was when Solskjaer first took over.
It’s worth noting, however, that in every title-winning season under the man who watched these proceedings unfold from his usual seat in the directors box, United put together exactly that kind of sequence, usually longer and sometimes more than once.
This was a tense affair. You wouldn’t have known from Solskjaer’s behavior.
When David de Gea lunged to the right to parry Matty Cash’s shot in injury time and even later, when Eric Bailly got in the way of Keinan Davis’s shot, Solskjaer remained the same, his hands tucked into his pockets of a jacket buttoned to cover his mouth.
But those were great moments in a great victory. You could tell from the way three of Solskjaer’s coaches nervously paced the technical area as they passed those five minutes of injury time and goalkeeping manager Richard Hartis yelled “calm down” to the United players, when it was clear that he did not feel nothing.
Then there was the way Bailly’s teammates pounced on him at the final whistle, jubilant at the Ivorian for risking his body in the collective cause.
“There is a reason for the color of my hair,” Solskjaer said afterward, her gray blouse clearly visible. “We should have played better, but we like to do it the hard way.”
It was no surprise that Bruno Fernandes was the winner of the match. In 30 Premier League appearances since his arrival last January, he transformed United’s fortunes, his penalty being the Portuguese’s 33rd goal.
For months it seemed that Fernandes was leading the Solskjaer team.
But it goes deeper. His team has a depth that few can match. In this of all seasons, that could prove vital. Edinson Cavani did not participate after starting a three-game suspension, but, as with players like Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, United’s other goalscorer against Villa, De Gea and Bailly, the Uruguayan has made vital, unrecognized contributions.
Then there are the top ones.
At times over the past 24 months, Executive Vice President Ed Woodward has been virtually alone in defending the Norwegian and continues to insist that he was the right man for the job when all the evidence suggested otherwise.
With the man widely touted as Solskjaer’s replacement, Mauricio Pochettino, preparing to return to the game at Paris St-Germain, Woodward used his notes from the New Years program to outline what he sees as the bigger picture around his coach, appointed first to perform a ‘cultural reset’ after the upheaval of the José Mourinho era.
“There are many positive statistics showing the progress made with Ole in the last year, but they only tell part of the story,” he said.
“Just as important is the work we see being done behind the scenes to build a winning culture consistent with the traditions of the attacking soccer club played by young, hard-working teams that fuse local talent with top-notch recruits.”
To that end, while United’s sources predict a quiet January on transfers, one player who is coming, provided all the post-Brexit paperwork is done, is 18-year-old Amad Diallo of Ivorian.
This is the kind of player Solskjaer’s United are trying to sign. Young people with potential. The same goes for Jadon Sancho, even if the figures around the England winger and Borussia Dortmund are substantially higher than the £ 19 million they will spend on Diallo.
Solskjaer said after the game that United “have improved a lot in one year.”
Yet obviously United is not the finished article. There are players Solskjaer would be willing to sell this month to start, although whether someone will pay the salary to tempt Phil Jones, Sergio Romero or Marcos Rojo is another matter. More complicated decisions must be made around the loan of Brandon Williams to Southampton and the future of Jesse Lingard, on the bench against Villa.
A new central defender remains on the shopping list, as well as a right forward Solskjaer hoped Sancho would already be.
But the doubts that have persisted for so long are beginning to disappear.
No one at United will say they are back. But going to Anfield like something like that, at least according to the table, shows that United is getting there.
