After being reduced to 10 men in the second half, Ashley Young’s dismissal and Chris Smalling’s own goal, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United came crashing down to a 2-1 defeat against Hungry Wolves in a dynamic Premier League game on Wednesday morning. Wolverhampton Wanderers had already beaten United in the FA Cup a couple of weeks ago.
Seeing his team suffer a third defeat in their last four games was undoubtedly disappointing for Solskajer, who was only appointed as permanent manager last week.
The result left United at the 5th position with 61 points, right behind Tottenham Hotspur, thereby eliminating their chances of ending this season in the top four, and a top-four finish is a requirement for qualifying for the Champions League.
Man United had a solid start with 22-year-old Scott McTominay scoring a memorable first goal after 13 minutes, only to be leveled by Wolves’ Diogo Jota minutes later. Young earned a reckless dismissal in the 57th minute after collecting two yellow cards, and twenty minutes later, Smalling catastrophically scored an own goal.
In the end, despite United’s decent efforts, they succumbed to the pressure placed upon them by Wolves. Wolves’ coach Nuno Espirito Santo commented that United “began the game very well” and it wasn’t easy playing against them.
