Manchester United failed to win the second league game of the new season. Eight days after the 5-1 win over Leeds United, a 1-1 draw followed on Sunday at Southampton. It was an attractive game, with both teams having chances to win the game. Tottenham Hotspur is on six points after two matches: the team of Nuno Espirito gave the 1-0 victory over Manchester City a good follow-up with a 0-1 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Southampton v Manchester United 1-1
Compared to the match against Leeds United (5-1 win), Anthony Martial and Nemanja Matic made their entrance into the starting XI, leaving Daniel James and Scott McTominay to the bench. Donny van de Beek once again had a spare role. In the opening phase, Paul Pogba hit the bar on a free kick from Bruno Fernandes, then Mohammed Salisu cleared the line after Martial’s rebound. Manchester United pushed Southampton back into their own half and the visitors’ opening goal seemed only a matter of time. However, it was Southampton that took the lead after half an hour of play.
At the sideline, Bruno Fernandes was kicked off the ball by Jack Stephens. In the eyes of the Manchester United midfielder, Stephens committed a foul, but referee Craig Pawson disagreed. Southampton then combined smoothly outside the penalty area. Adam Armstrong served Adams, whose shot by Fred was deflected by David de Gea; the goal went down in the books as Fred’s own goal. Ten minutes after the break, Manchester United came alongside. Mason Greenwood was reached in the penalty area by Pogba and hit around the penalty spot.
There were then opportunities for Pogba, Greenwood and Bruno Fernandes, but on the other side Southampton also left considerable opportunities to take the game. David de Gea prevented Armstrong from making it 2-1 in a one-on-one situation, after which the striker from a header was also not accurate. A free kick by James Ward-Prowse was successfully processed by De Gea. At Manchester United, Van de Beek stayed on the bench for ninety minutes, which means that he is still at zero playing minutes in the new season.
Wolverhampton Wanderers – Tottenham Hotspur 0-1
Tottenham went into halftime with a small lead thanks to a spot on penalty in the ninth minute, but it was also worrying that it was the Londoners’ only attempt on goal in the first 45 minutes. Dele Alli was knocked down by goalkeeper José Sa and then silvered the eleven-meter kick himself: 0-1. Wolverhampton dominated the remainder of the first half. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris had to come into action on attempts by Trincao and Rúben Neves and the best chance was for Raúl Jiménez, who shot the ball just over the goal.
Also in the first twenty minutes after the break the most threat came from the home team, but Romain Saïss and Nélson Semedo aimed over or wide and Lloris prevented bets by Adama Traoré and Trincao from going into his goal. In the 65th minute Sa had a lot of trouble with an attempt by Steven Bergwijn, who started in the starting line-up, but Heung-min Son’s rebound was also a prey for the keeper of the Wolves
Harry Kane made his first minutes of the season in the 72nd minute. The attacker came in as a replacement for Son. There was no goal for the top scorer. After Bergwijn’s preparatory work, he couldn’t get the ball past Sa and Bergwijn was also not accurate in the rebound. Sa also turned a header from Eric Dier in the final minutes. Ki-Jana Hoever stayed on the bench for ninety minutes with the home team and Bergwijn was replaced by Harry Winks in the final minutes.