Manchester United’s winning streak continues: The Red Devils earned a well-deserved 4-2 victory in front of their home crowd against Brighton, who were extremely vulnerable defensively for long periods and woke up too late.
Ruben Amorim had no real reason to change his starting lineup after the 2-1 win at rivals Liverpool. However, the Portuguese coach had to make one injury-enforced change: Yoro replaced Maguire. On the other side, German coach Fabian Hüzeler brought in de Cuyper for Gomez compared to the 2-1 win against Newcastle United.
And that Belgian was to quickly take center stage: after Minteh’s first chance for the visitors (7th minute), Old Trafford suddenly demanded a penalty—but referee Anthony Taylor, somewhat surprisingly, did not penalize de Cuyper’s contact in a duel with Amad (16th minute). This was in keeping with Taylor’s generous approach to the game.
The home side, however, exuded much more confidence in the aftermath and punished Brighton’s defensive lapses, which continued throughout the evening, in the 24th minute: Bruno Fernandes passed to Casemiro, who forwarded the ball to Matheus Cunha. He curled the ball past defender van Hecke into the bottom right corner to take the lead.
Sesko misses the target – and then sets up the goal
While there was a complete lack of control in this scene, ten minutes later the risk was simply too high. Shaw intercepted the ball deep in the opponent’s half. Casemiro, who had just set up the goal, took a shot and benefited from Ayari deflecting the seemingly harmless long-range shot, making it unstoppable for Verbruggen – 2-0 (34′). ManUnited could have led by even more at halftime, but Sesko shot wide from a promising position on the left side of the penalty area after a fine combination (44′). Hürzeler had a lot to discuss in the dressing room, but decided not to make any changes at first.
However, Brighton didn’t offer much more after the break, and Bruno Fernandes even came close to scoring a third goal (48′), so the German coach made three changes after an hour.
One minute later, however, the Seagulls conceded a third goal, which finally dashed their comeback hopes: after Rutter lost possession, Sesko set up Mbeumo, who slotted the ball through Dunk’s legs into the bottom right corner (61′).
Hürzeler demands red card
The game was threatening to fall flat when Dorgu suddenly misplaced a pass deep in the opponent’s half. Running back, the substitute brought down Minteh, the last man, just outside the penalty area. Hürzeler demanded a red card, but Taylor only gave a yellow. However, the free kick had consequences: Welbeck curled the ball over the wall and under the crossbar (74′).
United then struggled briefly, but Brighton was unable to capitalize on this. The tension returned in the second minute of stoppage time when 18-year-old Greek prodigy Kostoulas headed a Milner corner into the far corner to make it 2-3. However, Mbeumo had the answer, scoring his second goal of the game to make it 4-2 after Heaven’s assist (90+6).
Next Saturday, the Red Devils will be looking to extend their winning streak to four games at Nottingham Forest. Brighton are already in action in the League Cup at Arsenal this week, before facing newly promoted Leeds on November 1—for Hürzeler, a German coaching duel with Daniel Farke.