When Cristiano Ronaldo lost his captain’s armband early in the first half, it was a basic wardrobe malfunction.
But somehow, it seemed a touch symbolic - under his on-field leadership, Manchester United were ragged, regularly ripped apart on the counter-attack and running out of ideas well before the final whistle. Considering this season’s tantrums, to give Ronaldo the captaincy in the first place was a slightly bizarre decision but it summed up Erik ten Hag’s day - a day of wrong calls, starting Donny van de Beek being Exhibit A.
But while this was not the United manager’s finest hour, his deficiencies should take nothing away from a quite exhilarating Aston Villa performance and a quite wonderful start to the Unai Emery era. And at the heart of it was a player who will not be in Gareth Southgate’s squad when it is announced on Thursday but is surely one for future tournaments.
