Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer expressed satisfaction over his team’s performance in their 3- win over Aston Villa in the Premier League on Thursday at the Villa Park but believed that they could have won by a bigger margin.
“It took us about 20-25 minutes to get going and then we seemed to pick up the tempo. I thought in the second half we played really well and of course we kept another clean sheet. I’m very happy with the way we came out in the second half. We created chances and kept them away from our goal,” Solskjaer was quoted as saying on the official website of Manchester United.
The result meant that United extended their unbeaten streak to 17 matches and also became the first Premier League team to win four consecutive matches with a margin of three or more goals. But Solskjaer was of the opinion that they could have scored more goals in each of the four matches.
“We should have won by five clear goals in all of them! I’m surprised by that stat, but we should have had so many more goals. We’re keeping clean sheets, which is great and I think we could have had a few more the other way,” the former United manager said.
The first breakthrough of the match came in the 25th minute when Fernandes tumbled into Ezri Konsa in Villa’s box. Though there seemed little evidence of wrongdoing from Konsa, the visitors were handed a penalty.
It enraged the Villa camp further when the VAR did not overturn the on-field referee’s decision. The Portuguese midfielder successfully converted the resulting spot-kick to score his eighth goal in a United shirt.
“If I try and tackle you and jump over you and I land on you, I think that’s a foul. The boy sticks out his leg, he [Bruno] does a fantastic Maradona pirouette and he lands on him and I think it’s a penalty,” the Norwegian boss added.
The Red Devils doubled their lead in the stoppage time of the opening half when Manchester United academy graduate Mason Greenwood struck another long-ranger from outside the box to net his fourth goal in the last three matches.
About Greenwood, Solskjaer said, “He has to manage himself. I’m doing my bit to help him, he has to turn in performances in the training sessions and in the games, play properly. It’s all down to him and he can go as far as he wants to. He’s an exceptional finisher and I’m surprised he didn’t score his first chance today. You can’t leave a player out when he’s scoring goals. That’s more or less impossible.”
The final nail in Villa’s coffin was hammered by French World Cup winner Paul Pogba with the midfielder bagging his first goal of an injury-hit season with a low curler from 18 yards.