Southampton 0, Manchester United 1
Bruno Fernandes scored as Manchester United beat Southampton 1-0 at St Mary’s to record their second win of the season.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was United’s first away win of the season and ended an embarrassing run of seven straight Premier League away defeats for the Reds as they built on the morale boosting home win against Liverpool on Monday.
Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was pleased with his side’s application but bemoaned the penalty that his side didn’t get, saying: “We had more chances and shots on goal in the end, they had one great chance and scored but we couldn’t manage to score.
Of Scott McTominay’s handball incident he incredulously said: “It was three handballs!”
Erik Ten Hag said: “Against all the teams in the Premier League you have to compete.
“It’s hard work and everyone has to be conscious of that.”
United were unsurprisingly unchanged from the win against Liverpool which meant that Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire both started on the bench alongside new signing Casemiro.
And despite Southampton proving a tough challenge, United’s players again stepped up and proved that they deserved to be picked again on the south coast.
Fernandes scored the only goal of the game after 55 minutes with a fine first time volley from Diogo Dalot’s cross – a precise shot from 16 yards out.
And the Reds brought on new £60m signing from Real Madrid, Casemiro, to help them close out a game where Lisandro Martinez and David De Gea were more involved than they would have wanted to be.
Southampton made them work for their points – ex-City goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and Kyle Walker-Peters prevented certain goals with great blocks.
De Gea had to save Che Adam’s shot and Joe Aribo’s header while Scott McTominay somehow escaped a penalty claim when he appeared to handle the ball in the area.