For about 25 minutes, the league table had an unusually pleasing look for Manchester United. It isn’t something that could be said often in Ruben Amorim’s reign but they would surely have settled for it staying that way for the rest of the season. They were fifth, level on points with Chelsea, on course for a return to the Champions League, if scarcely playing like a team who belonged among the European elite.
And then they contrived to lose a lead at Old Trafford to a team in the bottom three. Amorim pronounced himself “frustrated and angry”. He was not alone. Boos greeted the final whistle. United are eighth, a return of one win from their last five games and their habit of drawing from winning positions means they are missing opportunities to be rather higher in the table. A return of one point from home matches against 10-man Everton and relegation-threatened West Ham is unsatisfactory. So, too, a record of only winning one second half this season. “We need to be better in the second halves,” said Amorim. And perhaps in the first halves, too.
