Aston Villa 0 - 1 Man Utd
Manchester United’s Adnan Januzaj stakes claim with winner at Aston VillaAdnan Januzaj 29
Adnan Januzaj cuts inside before scoring the only goal to extend Aston Villa's miserable home record against Manchester United.
Louis van Gaal has spoken about how away victories can be the cornerstone of Manchester United’s success this season, after so many points were dropped on the road last term, and this was a promising start, if not a wholly convincing performance, as Adnan Januzaj came in from the cold to score the only goal of the game – albeit one that may not be enough to keep him at Old Trafford.
Making his first club start in more than six months, Januzaj ended a goal drought going back to April 2014 on a night when United extended their extraordinary sequence of results at Villa Park and dampened some of the optimism in these parts after a summer of rebuilding.
United have now gone 20 matches without losing in the league at Villa – increasing what was already the longest unbeaten away run in any fixture in top-flight history – and the truth is that Tim Sherwood’s new-look side never threatened to deliver a result to put that dreadful statistic to bed.
Sergio Romero could have taken the night off along with David de Gea, whose future remains shrouded in doubt, as Villa huffed and puffed without success against a United team that played within themselves for long periods. It was a workmanlike performance from the visitors, with little cohesion or fluency to their play, and Van Gaal bemoaned the number of occasions that his players squandered possession.
The game will certainly not live long in the memory for Wayne Rooney. The United captain has scored more goals against Villa than any other club but he looked strangely out of sorts here. Leading the line, Rooney’s touch let him down at times and he was way off the pace. The fact that he failed to touch the ball in the penalty area until the 93rd minute said it all.
By that point, however, Januzaj had made his mark and United were well on their way to winning their opening two league matches for the first time since 2011. With two clean sheets also recorded, Van Gaal is entitled to be pleased with United’s start to the season – he made the point that this was a better display than the one against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day, yet the Dutchman is under no illusions that there is plenty of room for improvement. “We had too many unnecessary ball losses, that was not only Adnan Januzaj, also Memphis Depay and also Wayne Rooney, So we have to improve that,” he said.
Van Gaal had decided beforehand that Januzaj, a surprise inclusion in place of Ashley Young, would only play 60 minutes, but the United manager gave the impression that he was not overly enthused with what he had seen from the Belgium international, who has been linked with a loan move to Sunderland. “It was a wonderful goal Adnan could score, but you have to do more than just score a goal,” Van Gaal said. He also refused to give any assurances that Januzaj would remain a United player. “You will have to wait and see until we close the transfer period,” added Van Gaal.
It was difficult to pick out a standout performer in such a humdrum game but Juan Mata, deployed on the right to accommodate Januzaj in the No10 role, delivered the best two passes of the night. The first, after a nice exchange on the left involving Depay and Januzaj, led to the opening goal. Another majestic through ball from the Spaniard should have ended with Depay adding a second later in the game but the Dutchman curled wide with only Brad Guzan to beat.
While United have maximum points on the board, the real test will be when they come up against a better calibre of opponent. Villa are very much a club in transition and it is clearly going to take time for Sherwood to mould together so many new signings. “They’re still getting acclimatised to England, let alone Premier League football,” the Villa manager said.
Villa’s manager admitted that his team “didn’t carry enough attacking threat” in a match when Romero did not had a shot to save. The only stop of note that the United goalkeeper made was when Gabriel Agbonlahor headed straight at him in the 54th minute.
Sherwood highlighted the fact that Carles Gil, Jack Grealish and Amada Traoré, three of his most creative players, were missing – the latter was paraded on the pitch beforehand after completing his move from Barcelona – but he also acknowledged that the second-half introduction of Rudy Gestede had led to his team becoming too direct. “I think when Rudy came on we got a bit obsessed with lumping the ball up to him,” Sherwood said.
The only real possible moment of concern for United was late in the first half, when Matteo Darmian, the Italian right-back, tangled with Micah Richards in the area following a Villa corner. Darmian had his arms all over Richards and on another day Mike Dean, the referee, could have pointed to the spot. “Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t,” Sherwood said. “I’m not going to be sticking pins in the referee tonight.”
Januzaj’s goal came after the best passage of play in the game. Mata drifted out to the left to deliver the perfectly weighted pass that carved open the Villa defence and picked out Januzaj’s darting run. Richards saw the danger and raced across but failed to apply the brakes and Januzaj, showing some dexterous footwork, checked inside, sitting the Villa captain on his backside in the process, before stroking a right-footed shot that deflected off Ciaran Clark and went in off the far upright.
Guardian