BY REUTERS
Manchester United ground out a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa on Sunday with the club suffering their worst start to a season in the Premier League era and speculation rife about the future of under-fire manager Erik ten Hag.
The draw sends Unai Emery’s men into the international break in fifth in the table on 14 points after seven games, while United are languishing in 14th with eight points.
Their points tally is United’s lowest in their opening seven matches of a Premier League campaign and their lowest in any league season since 1989-90 (seven points), when they went on to finish 13th under Alex Ferguson — his lowest league finish as manager.
“I think it’s the fourth clean sheet this season,” Ten Hag said as he looked for positives. “You see we had a very good organisation and togetherness. There was good character and good spirit as a team. Determined, resilient.”
United captain Bruno Fernandes had the best chance of the game for either team, clanging a free kick off the crossbar from outside the box in the 68th minute. Antony then missed the target with the rebound and with keeper Emi Martinez out of his goal.
Villa’s Jaden Philogene had a spectacular effort at a goal in stoppage time after Matthijs de Ligt missed Morgan Rogers’ drilled ball across the goal. Philogene’s shot looked to be heading for the net before Diogo Dalot turned to block it with his back. Emery buried his head in his hands in frustration.
United’s woeful start to the season has put Ten Hag back in the spotlight and the team’s entire senior leadership — co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, CEO Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, and technical director Jason Wilcox — were in attendance at Villa Park for what many believed was a pivotal game for the manager.
“It does affect the players,” United defender Jonny Evans said of the rumours about the manager’s future. “It’s on our minds too.”
The afternoon was a tale of teams headed in different directions, with United suffering a terrible start, and Villa enjoying their best beginning to a campaign since 2008-09 and coming off a 1-0 Champions League win over Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
“It’s not a bad result, but it’s not the best,” Emery said. “How we played, I think the draw is fair for both teams. We missed some energy but I am happy because the draw was not the worst result. In the second half we corrected some things to control the match.”
United played with considerably more confidence and togetherness than their previous two matches — a woeful 3-0 league loss to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend followed by a 3-3 Europa League draw with Porto on Thursday that saw them give up a two-goal lead.
United’s Marcus Rashford had a couple of near misses, with Villa keeper Martinez forced into a diving save in the game’s early minutes, and then leaping to push a shot over the bar soon after halftime.
Rogers blazed a shot just wide of United’s net in the first half.
Villa defender Ezri Konsa limped to the bench in the 12th minute after going down clutching his hamstring — a blow for both Villa and England, ahead of the national side’s upcoming Nations League games against Greece and Finland.
United lost oft-injured defender Harry Maguire, who limped off the pitch at the end of the first half.
