Manchester United appeared to be ending their two-week summer tour of Thailand and Australia with victory and a perfect record of four wins from four before David de Gea went missing at a corner in injury time and Calum Chambers crashed home an equaliser for Aston Villa.
Thus a two-goal half-time lead in Perth had been let slip and Erik ten Hag was clear he will use this as a reality check. “That’s what I just said in the dressing room,” said the manager. “A drop of focus is unacceptable but before the season I’m happy because now I can tell them it cannot happen. We have to get out of the dressing room and back in our plan [after half-time] and that is what we didn’t do.”
Ten Hag was cuter when asked if blaming De Gea for Chambers’s strike was harsh. “I have to see it back,” the manager said.
United flew home from Perth straight after the whistle with a return of three wins, a draw, 13 goals scored and three conceded. Ten Hag said: “Football is a sport of mistakes and we have to decrease the mistakes. But I have seen a lot of progress in these two weeks. In the first half I saw really good football, really controlling and dominating the game.”
Villa were kept at arm’s length by United’s attacking before rallying admirably in the second half. Not impressive, though, was a surface that was a touch treacherous as illustrated by United’s opening foray: Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes combined but slipped on a pitch that had taken heavy rain.
The weather had come close to forcing a postponement and the danger of injury was obvious. Thankfully this did not occur. Harry Maguire was one of United’s better performers after being booed during Tuesday’s win over Crystal Palace in Melbourne. The captain went close to an opener when leaping to meet a Shaw corner. Emiliano Martínez beat the header out but Villa’s goalkeeper and teammates had been warned.
Villa’s manager, Steven Gerrard, had talked of his side “turning the dial” up after Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Brisbane Roar so the sight of Matty Cash dummying Rashford before firing at De Gea’s goal would have pleased him. United’s No 1 dived and missed the ball but it blazed wide of his right post.
The domestic element made this a game with edge. Villa players crashed into United’s, as when John McGinn upended Fernandes and Diego Carlos did the same to Rashford.
United, more intent on playing, scored first via the kind of free-flowing sequence that is becoming their hallmark under Ten Hag. Martial tapped the ball to Fernandes, who fed Rashford along the left. Shaw whirred past, took a pass and chipped to Jadon Sancho, who lifted a foot to volley home.
Torrential rain started, lashing proceedings, as United doubled the lead. Sancho drifted along the right and popped the ball in. Rashford’s effort was mis-hit but a deflection off Cash beat Martínez for an own goal. Gerrard sent on Leon Bailey at the interval and within five minutes he scored. He motored along the right and made Victor Lindelöf appear an amateur by beating the Swede and then De Gea with a 20-yard finish.
This was admirable from Villa and they had the momentum, De Gea making a fingertip save when another Bailey effort ricocheted off Martial. Villa were in the mode Gerrard would want. An Emiliano Buendía ball released the dangerous Bailey, who rounded De Gea but Maguire was there to make a classic last-ditch clearance.
For the closing phase Ten Hag changed all his outfield players. This made United a little ragged and, as the wind became strong enough to blow a plastic chair on to the field, Chambers stepped up.
Gerrard said: “The players have gone out and been different in the second half for the better.”
