Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got the better of ‘tactical genius’ Marcelo Bielsa on Sunday as Manchester United drubbed Leeds United 6-2 at Old Trafford. Man Utd picked up all the three points to go third in the league table 5 points behind Liverpool and 1 point behind Leicester City. The Foxes beat Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur to go second in the table. Aston Villa routed West Brom in their 0-3 win to go 9th in the table.
Manchester United vs Leeds United
Starting their game at home against visitors Leeds, Man Utd went berserk as Scott McTominay gave them a 2-0 lead within 3 minutes of the game. It didn’t take long for United to pile on Bielsa’s woes as they extended their lead through Bruno Fernandes in the 20th minute. Victor Lindelof scored his third goal for United when he found the back of the net in the 37th minute to take the hosts 4-0 ahead of the first half break.
It didn’t take Leeds to pull one back in the 42nd minute from a Liam Cooper header. Bielsa’s attack-at-all-costs backfired as Leeds conceded a lot of space in the mid-field which the Red Devils capitalized well. 20 minutes into the second half, Daniel James found himself on a beautiful pass from McTominay which he converted with finesse. In the 70th minute, Martial was fouled inside the Leeds box and United got a penalty.
Fernandes converted the spot-kick to pick up his 2nd of the game as Man Utd looked for more. However, Leeds’ relentless counterattack was topped with a top corner belter from Stuart Dallas which got the better of David de Gea.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Ole said, “That was fantastic. From the first minute we had a plan to get after them, go forward when we got the ball and of course Scott gets two goals in the first three minutes which is a great start to the game.”
“We’re one third into the season, not even at the halfway point. So, league position is not something we’re going to look at. We look at improvement in the team, look at improvement in fitness – because we knew we were going to be lagging behind in fitness and I think it showed in the first few games.”
Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur
Jose Mourinho’s Spurs suffered a second significant dent in as many games as they fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Leicester City on Sunday. Their title hopes took a blow as they finished 5th in the table. A Jamie Vardy penalty put Leicester in front on the stroke of half-time before an own goal from Toby Alderweireld in the 59th minute.
Jose said as quoted by BBC, “I didn’t think either team played very, very well. It’s a game where your goalkeeper doesn’t make a single save, but it’s a game that we didn’t play very well. We deserved to win the game at Liverpool and that would have made it an amazing week because nobody has done that for a long time – the team was phenomenal at Liverpool. Now if you look at the table everybody is there.”
