Manchester United ensured their home campaign for the 2021/22 Premier League season did not end in failure as they ran out 3-0 winners over Brentford.
The win means Ralf Rangnick's side now sit three points behind Antonio Conte's fifth-placed Spurs but United have played two games more. The game also marked Rangnick's final time in the Old Trafford hot-seat, with the Red Devils last two games of the season away from home.
United opened the scoring courtesy of a close-range volley after a delightful cutback from Anthony Elanga left the Portuguese international with a relatively comfortable finish. Cristiano Ronaldo thought he had doubled their advantage but VAR's intervention meant the score stayed at 1-0 for the time being.
Given it has been 38 years since United lost a league game at Old Trafford where they have been leading at half-time, the signs were ominous for Brentford. Ronaldo ensured their task become near-impossible when he converted a penalty around an hour in.
Raphael Varane put the game beyond any doubt with United's third of the game and his first for the club after volleying home from a corner. Mirror Football has analysed the game's five main talking points.
Ronaldo a cut above the rest
HAVE YOUR SAY! Has Ronaldo been United's player of the season? Comment below
The 37-year-old has carried the club on his back at times this term and was yet again the most positive player in a United shirt.
Ronaldo’s backheel count already reached five before the half hour mark, yet all of them were successful and all of them got the Old Trafford crowd up off their feet. Home games in the red half of Manchester have been flat so often this term, but the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was doing his best to put on a show.
The former Real Madrid man was actually showcasing parts of his skillset that he is very rarely credited for, such as his ability to be a vital part of linking attacks and creating chances for others.
His deft flick into the path of Mata was certainly the pick of the bunch and Ronaldo thought he added to his goal tally just before the break but he had just mistimed his run.
He didn’t have to wait particularly long to make amends however, as just shy of the hour mark Ronaldo outmuscled Rico Henry before being brought down inside the area.
It came as no surprise to anyone inside Old Trafford that once Ronaldo had been handed the ball instead of Fernandes, the iconic number seven made no mistake – sending David Raya the wrong way from the spot.
The superstar is on course to ensure he bags 20 league goals for the 12th successive season, with his current return sitting at 18.
Fading top four prospects
While Champions League qualification for next season remains a tall order, defeat tonight would have sealed their fate and confirmed a finish outside of the top four.
The win keeps their slim hopes alive, but does still mean both Arsenal and Tottenham will have to suffer huge capitulations to hand the much-coveted fourth spot to the Red Devils.
In reality, a campaign spent in the Europa League looks like the far more likely outcome for Erik ten Hag when he arrives next season – though no Champions League football could spark fresh speculation over what players the Dutchman will have at his disposal.
It remains to be seen whether talismanic figures like Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford will stick around without a seat at the table of European football’s elite.
Mata and Matic earn starts
It is undeniably a damning indictment of some of the younger United stars in the current first-team fold and the club’s recent recruitment that a 33-year-old Nemanja Matic and 34-year-old Juan Mata are still earning Premier League starts.
In truth, it was more likely an act of generosity from Rangnick as both of them bid farewell to the Old Trafford faithful. Mata was enjoying just his third league start since November 2020 and tasked with breaking down a Brentford side deploying five defenders - Mata’s creative nous seemed to abandon him but the Spaniard is so reliable in possession.
While there may be an argument that United's midfield appeared to have less range and imagination to their passing than their Brentford counterparts, Mata’s progressive nature came in hand for the hosts who were playing far more on the front-foot than they have at other times this term.
Matic meanwhile, struggled to get to grips with the kind of threat that Christian Eriksen was posing throughout the game and Brentford did occasionally enjoy more space than Rangnick would have liked in the middle of the park.
United’s Serbian midfielder has never been blessed with pace and that was on display as Eriksen wheeled away from him only for Matic to pull him back and pick up a yellow card.
Eriksen delights
The Old Trafford have been starved of a stellar creative performance from an attacking midfielder in recent seasons, but Christian Eriksen put on quite the passing display against the Red Devils.
The Denmark international enjoyed his first game at Old Trafford since his on-pitch cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 and subsequent return to the Premier League and was greeted with applause from the Stretford End while taking corners in the first-half.
Eriksen so very nearly cut United open inside the opening 20 seconds when his diagonal pass found the boot of Bryan Mbeumo, but the Bees forward failed to bring it under control.
Seemingly every passage of positive play from the visitor’s perspective came through Eriksen and just after the 20-minute mark the Dane was at it again with a stunning cross onto the head of Ivan Toney, whose header left plenty to be desired.
The same combination linked up to present the Bees with another chance early on in the second-half, but yet again Toney failed to deliver on his end of the deal.
Fans send Glazers a message
After a protest outside the stadium before kick-off, a healthy portion of United fans aimed to send a message to the club’s much-maligned owners on the 73rd minute by staging a planned walk out to get the attention of the Americans.
The reason behind the gesture taking place with 17 minutes to go is to have the stadium as empty as possible with each minute representing one year of the Glazer’s ownership.
Given the game was televised on Sky Sports, the fans who organised the exodus did so with the aim of having the eyes of the footballing world on them as they walked out of the Theatre of Dreams.
The gesture comes almost a year to the day the Glazers were part of the botched European Super League as they tried to enter United into the plans that received serious backlash.
In truth, very few United fans appeared to actually head for the exit given Rangnick's men were in fine form and morale was high, though flares and anti-Glazer posters were unveiled.
