The fine tidings for Manchester United are that they are now safe from relegation, the grim ones are that this occurred despite going down to a 15th defeat of a dismal Premier League campaign.
Wolves’ winner was simple: on 77 minutes Pablo Sarabia, on as a substitute only 120 seconds before, placed a 20-yard free-kick sweetly to the left of André Onana, Christian Eriksen having committed the foul for the dead ball.
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Cue the those who had motored up from the Black Country to taunt their opposite number as they hailed, too, a fifth top-flight win in a row for a first time since 1972 for their team.
Toward the end Mason Mount twice spurned close-range openings to grab a share of the points at least. First, he scooped over wildly. Then, at Eriksen’s outside-of-the-right-foot delivery he spooned the volley wide.
This late phase of the contest was, at last, a little watchable. While no one could expect a repeat of Thursday’s operatic extra time added-seconds United win over Lyon, you would not expect, either, this battle of 14th versus 16th to be so soporific. When Rasmus Højlund collected by the touchline near Ruben Amorim’s technical area and left Emmanuel Agbadou trailing and galloped into yards of grass, the game had a first moment of skill and verve – 50 minutes in.
The striker, starved of service all term by his misfiring unit, looked up, saw teammates arriving on the far side, ignored them, dawdled, and Wolves escaped. Moments later, a dash of pantomime as Nélson Semedo, the visiting captain, bent a backpass towards an empty goal, causing his goalkeeper, Dan Bentley, a scramble to mop the ball up – to jeers.
Bruno Fernandes looks dejected after Manchester United concede. Photograph: Scott Heppell/Reuters
On 58 minutes Amorim made a triple change – a function of wishing to shake proceedings up, and give Kobbie Mainoo, Patrick Dorgu and Manuel Ugarte a rest following their endeavours on Thursday. On came Mount, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot and United continued to be the brighter of the foes, keeping and flicking the ball about inside Wolves’ territory.
A slick move had Eriksen walling the ball to Alejandro Garnacho who sprinted down a left-sided channel and crossed: Højlund, with a solitary league goal since the middle of December in United colours, was inches away from stabbing home a second but the ball slid past agonisingly.
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But this was about it – before and after Sarabia’s winner. At the end of the 90, the referee Robert Jones added six minutes of time and the quip was the referee might add six hours and what was on show would still be tame. When he did finally blow, this ended as a prime illustration of how not to follow a heart-stopping comeback to keep your season alive – as United’s 5-4 victory over Lyon here (7-6 overall) did, in the Europa League.
