Manchester United\u2019s first home game of the new Premier League season began with uncertainty, but it ended with a statement comeback in heavy rain. After 39 minutes, Michael Carrick\u2019s side looked capable of suffering another difficult afternoon, yet they recovered to beat Ipswich 5-2 and turn a flat opening into a commanding finish.<\/p>\n
Bruno Fernandes levelled before half-time, and the match changed completely after the break. United then struck four more times without reply, with three of those goals arriving in a 12-minute burst. Ipswich later claimed a late consolation, but by then the result was already beyond doubt. Fernandes finished with a hat-trick, while Bryan Mbeumo opened his account for the season.<\/p>\n
There was also controversy around the second goal, which stood despite an accidental handball by Harry Maguire, helped by a rulebook loophole. Even so, the bigger picture was United\u2019s response after a first half in which they were second best in several key areas. By the interval, Ipswich had the edge in xG, shots on target and big chances, surprising numbers given the quality in United\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n
That starting XI, with Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Marcus Rashford up front, and Kobbie Mainoo, Youri Tielemans and Fernandes behind them, looked strong on paper. Ipswich, under Gary O\u2019Neil, did not sit deep and actually took the game to United. The first-half equaliser came from a three-on-one break after an Ipswich mistake, yet United still created too little before the turnaround.<\/p>\n
Fernandes was central throughout, producing the kind of display that underlined his standing at the top of the division. He scored with conviction on his left foot, converted from the spot, and completed his hat-trick by reading Mbeumo\u2019s blocked effort perfectly. He also supplied Mbeumo\u2019s goal and came close to an extraordinary halfway-line strike.<\/p>\n
Rashford, meanwhile, appears to be fully reintegrated. He started here, had the joint-most touches in the opposition penalty area, and helped strengthen the sense that he will be used regularly. United now move into a busy run of seven matches across four weeks, with Everton away next as an early test.<\/p>\n
Left back remains the clearest area still needing attention, with Luke Shaw lacking natural cover now that Patrick Dorgu is being used further forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United stormed back in rain to beat Ipswich 5-2, with Fernandes starring and Rashford involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[687,1742,1083],"tags":[1162,1066,1047],"class_list":["post-18854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everton","category-ipswich-town","category-man-utd","tag-analytics","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}