<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nOn a day when fans marched on Old Trafford demanding \u201c100% sale\u201d of their club rather than Sir Jim Ratcliffe\u2019s proposal to purchase just over 50% and perhaps keep one or more of the Glazer siblings as stakeholders, Fernandes\u2019s pivot-and-finish six minutes before half-time took all three points. This left his manager purring at Fernandes\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so tough \u2013 a couple of weeks ago people questioned his captaincy,\u201d Ten Hag said. \u201cThis is crazy, he is a big leader who gives so much energy to the team with his determination and resilience. We need players like him if you want to win trophies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United had pinged the ball about and around Villa at an express pace for most of an invigorating contest. In Marcus Rashford they had a centre-forward who began and ended with 19 goals at home despite a series of chances that began with a left-foot shot half-smothered by Emiliano Mart\u00ednez\u2019s backside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Villa\u2019s next escape occurred in a frantic passage when Mart\u00ednez rushed out and slipped, clearing the ball only to Christian Eriksen, who answered the home congregation\u2019s cries of \u201cshoot\u201d with a miscued lob. Possession went to Marcel Sabitzer who could not finish.Manchester United fans march to Old Trafford to demand 100% sale \u2013 video<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was all heartening for United and not to the liking of Unai Emery, whose animated quasi-semaphore touchline act had him taking a seat in disgust before he was up again to urge his players on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fernandes was next to threaten via a curving ball in from the right that no teammate was present to finish. But then Villa launched a raid and United were warned. Emiliano Buend\u00eda popped up in an inside-right position and slid the ball beyond David de Gea. As Ollie Watkins fell, Diogo Dalot stuck out a boot. Up sprang De Gea in time to repel \u00c1lex Moreno\u2019s piledriver and Ten Hag\u2019s charges breathed again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an incident-packed spectacle Casemiro went the closest yet to an opener by crashing the ball off Mart\u00ednez\u2019s bar, before Villa\u2019s captain, John McGinn, was primed to pull the trigger at the other end only for Tyrell Malacia\u2019s challenge to thwart him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then United scored the goal that proved the difference. A high pass was flicked on and Rashford collected it and shot across Mart\u00ednez. The goalkeeper\u2019s save was limp, pushing the ball to Fernandes. He twisted and forced it home courtesy of a Moreno deflection that inadvertently chipped the flailing Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the VAR took a look and ruled Rashford had not been offside, Emery offered a petulant thumbs up to the assistant referee, but comically the gesture required several repeats as it kept going unseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eriksen\u2019s radar has been awry recently after a prolonged layoff so a dink that bounced sweetly for Malacia to surge on to along the left was encouraging.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCasemiro (centre) makes a defensive header for Manchester United. Photograph: Simon Stacpoole\/Offside\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defender swept the ball towards the lurking Rashford and Tyrone Mings went close to backheeling it into the centre-forward\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was soon dribbling through and Mart\u00ednez had to dash out to stop him. Then, after a rare Villa attack teed Watkins up to shoot, Casemiro\u2019s floated diagonal was miscontrolled by Rashford.Quick Guide<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten Hag would have been pleased with the dominance but not the wanting ruthlessness: a theme of the campaign. Eriksen was a culprit: a move along the right was followed by a cross that failed to find either Sabitzer or Rashford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
United\u2019s profligacy meant Villa could still hope but McGinn had to do better with a 20-yard attempt he scuffed. Emery\u2019s side pressed as the final whistle approached: a Mings header was kept out by his teammate Ezri Konsa on United\u2019s goalline and as the clock ticked towards time Antony might have doubled the lead but could only pea-roll an effort into Mart\u00ednez\u2019s hands<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After Bruno Fernandes scored the winner he ran straight to the Aston Villa supporters and stood stock-still and poker-faced, a celebration that was a riposte to their taunts of Manchester United\u2019s captain. \u201cObviously they probably don\u2019t like to play against me, but it is what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s football, I\u2019m okay with that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":32423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[2824,5304,7452,10387,1911,9194,2152,8927,7478,7467,167,84,11337,6287,5494,5557,5346,11067,9026,7470,5500,5247,11638,4773,803,9410,3307,3874,11547,12791,11252,115,9473,507,170,11973,13256,11774,114,12917,9761,11259,7733,6327,5818,7419,4762,4705,10885,8033,594],"class_list":["post-32422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-aston-villa","tag-attack","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-campaign","tag-champions-league","tag-charges","tag-chase","tag-christian","tag-christian-eriksen","tag-dalot","tag-david-de-gea","tag-de-gea","tag-demand","tag-diogo","tag-energy","tag-erik-ten-hag","tag-eriksen","tag-escape","tag-fans","tag-fernandes","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-forced","tag-gea","tag-goalkeeper","tag-jim-ratcliffe","tag-konsa","tag-lead","tag-man-united","tag-manager","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-united","tag-marcel-sabitzer","tag-marcus-rashford","tag-old-trafford","tag-one","tag-players","tag-raid","tag-rashford","tag-ratcliffe","tag-shoot","tag-shot","tag-sir-jim-ratcliffe","tag-stock","tag-strike","tag-the-game","tag-tyrone-mings","tag-unai-emery","tag-victory","tag-video","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Juli\u00e1n](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/57e1856d19d6fc88276f8abbc74e87424c12312a\/0_114_3754_2253\/master\/3754.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0b7330e753dd8da1d2659148dd34d5e1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Casemiro](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/177b26778d0fc587a27170be6e34b7022edbc7ac\/0_182_5472_3283\/master\/5472.jpg?width=445&quality=85&dpr=1&s=none\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n