Off the field, the club is entering a new era as fans debate whether they want the much-maligned Glazer family to finally be booted out as owners or whether they want a bidder accused of sports washing or greenwashing.
Yet, one thing hasn’t changed from the gory football of the Louis van Gaal era to the turmoil of Jose Mourinho’s reign to the ups and downs of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tenure: David saves.
In the triumph over Leicester, where United occasionally played some of its finest football of the year, Rashford will once again garner the majority of the attention for his two goals.
The attacker for England has scored some incredible goals since the World Cup. With his two goals on Sunday, he has now scored 16 goals since his return from Qatar, which is 12 more than Chelsea and six more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues over the same time span.
Without the player who has been an injured United’s one-man bandaid for so long, Rashford and his team’s afternoon could have gone very, very differently.
David de Gea’s 180th clean sheet for Manchester United on Sunday matched Peter Schmeichel’s previous club record, breaking it for the day.
However, as has been the case for the better part of 12 years, De Gea had to give every inch of himself to finish the game against Leicester without having been breached, contributing to yet another United victory like few others in world football can. Clean sheets are frequently more the result of rigid defending than brave goalkeeping.
Ten Hag praised the Spaniard’s performance, saying, “Today the squad needed him since [the first half performance] was a shambles and these are amazing saves.”
“When we play a good opponent like Leicester, they have chances, and the only reason we don’t give up a goal is because of David de Gea. We were quite fortunate.
In his pre-game program notes, Ten Hag gushed over his United performers, saying that “we are all loving what is occurring here.” Such adulation appeared to go to his squad, as the hosts appeared to forget how to defend in the first 20 minutes.
In a normal situation, their club would have been two goals up thanks to Harvey Barnes’ prodded effort and Kelechi Iheanacho’s header near the bottom corner. Barnes’ attempt beat De Gea. Help would be required to put a dislocated shoulder back in its proper position if any other mere mortal attempted to block such a move.
De Gea, not content with just one potential save of the season, then raced to his right to save Iheanacho’s header, another attempt that appeared to be in before the Spaniard got his hands on it.
United required two wake-up calls, and when Rashford pounced on Fernandes’ precise through-pass in the 255th minute and fired into the bottom corner, there could be only one victor.
Supporters decided to express their emotions once the deadlock was broken and the ecstasy had subsided to a murmur.
Even some of the prawn sandwich lunchers stood up when the phrase “Stand up if you hate the Glazers” was yelled. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, two “big United fans,” were not seen in the director’s box, but Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno, who resembled a cross between Marilyn Manson and Liam Gallagher, was there.
Ten Hag characterized United’s performance in the first half as “rubbish,” but they were back to their brilliant attacking form after the break.
Even VAR couldn’t prevent Rashford, 25, from scoring as the goal stood after it was initially disallowed for offside 11 minutes into the second half.
Jadon Sancho came off the bench to play a beautiful one-two with Fernandes before stroking in the third goal, his second since rejoining the team, as United kept their best for last.
Yet, such flowing football would not have been conceivable if a very well-known hero had not shown at the other end of the field. After the game, Schmeichel tweeted his compliments and referred to De Gea’s 180th shutout as “hard-earned.” He is not mistaken.