Manchester United have done it again under interim boss Michael Carrick.
The Reds made it three wins in a row under the former United midfield maestro, again to the tune of 3-2, but they didn’t make it easy for themselves at Old Trafford on Sunday.
United’s XI had just one change to the side that beat City and Arsenal the last two weeks, with Matheus Cunha returning to the starting lineup after an injury to Patrick Dorgu. The Brazilian played more of a fluid role on the front line rather than the wide
play offered by Dorgu, and Bryan Mbeumo would often switch with his teammate from the striker position.
As expected, there wasn’t always so much room to attack against Fulham as there was against City two weeks ago, and United spent quite a bit of time looking to break out against the visitors. Despite a few wayward passes early on, the midfield duo of Kobbie Mainoo and Casemiro once again found the paths forward and offered excellent play against the Fulham press.
Casemiro eventually made a big difference in front of goal as well, heading home a free kick to put United 1-0 up. The play was initially a penalty after a foul on Cunha, but the VAR intervened to place the free kick just on the edge of the box. It didn’t matter too much for Bruno Fernandes. Instead of finding one of the corners of the goal from the spot, he found his midfield partner on a cross to invite the header at the back post.
The second half began with Fulham on the front foot, but again Mainoo and Casemiro helped the Reds play out of it. Mainoo did well to find Amad and force the ball up the pitch, but it took some patience to get the team forward and create a quality chance. Casemiro spotted Cunha on the shoulder of the back line, and found him with a well weighted pass out in front down the right half space. Cunha fired a thunderous shot past Bernd Leno and doubled the advantage just 10 minutes after the restart.
It felt as though the game was in hand for United, but Fulham were threatening. They had a goal chalked off due to offside, but eventually won a penalty in the 82nd minute to make it 2-1.
Substitute Kevin brought the sides level again with a great strike from the edge of the box, taking advantage of poor judgement by Manuel Ugarte to present the Brazilian winger with space to shoot, and suddenly it looked like the magic had run out going into stoppage time.
But the Reds had an answer with a sub of their own: Benjamin Sesko.
The striker nearly made it 3-0 with his first touch, only to hit the upright, but he didn’t miss on his next chance when his side needed him most. He took a bit of a heavy touch to receive the ball near the penalty spot, and had to move a bit awkwardly to fire off a shot, but he knew just where the top right corner was and put the ball in place for 3-2.
What felt like an eternity of stoppage time, about 11 minutes, finally came to a close with United on top for 3 points once again. The march on with Carrick continues with United still in the top four.
