Manchester United easily defeated Southampton, who had just been promoted, 3-0 on the road. They looked cool, collected, and composed throughout.

Man United needed three points badly to win back the faith of their followers after suffering their second straight defeat prior to the international break, especially in light of the growing resentment towards manager Erik ten Hag.

Tyler Tibling dribbled past Diogo Dalot and Lisandro Martinez to take a shot that rocketed towards the far post, giving the newly promoted team the early advantage. The game remained goalless only when Andre Onana made a full-stretch stop.

After fifteen minutes, Bruno Fernandes gave United their first chance to score when he threaded a through pass to Amad Diallo in the box. Christian Eriksen received the ball from Amad and found Joshua Zirkzee in the centre. Zirkzee did a good job of jumping forward and connecting with the ball, but Aaron Ramsdale stopped his attempt.

Subsequently, Tibling was causing trouble for the United defence once more. He dribbled by Dalot and kept Martinez glued to the spot while drilling in a cross. Luckily, Matthijs de Ligt was alert enough to get a foot in and clear the ball out of harm’s way.

When Dalot tackled Dibling twice inside the area at the halfway point, Southampton was awarded a penalty. Cameron Archer took a square shot, but Onana made an incredible dive to the bottom right corner to block Archer’s attempt. The ball bounced back to Archer, but United’s custodian easily stopped his header.

Shortly after, United, fired up, stormed up the pitch, and Zirkzee took advantage of a long-range chance that the custodian tipped out for a corner.

Then the magic began to happen. Eriksen sent the ball for a short corner to Fernandes, whose cross found Matthijs de Ligt’s head, giving United an unlikely lead.

Rashford went on the counterattack with five minutes remaining in the first half, taking a shot that Ramsdale parried out for a corner.

Then, with the United players in the box positioned just too deep to reach the cross, Eriksen sent one in. After Amad won the ball close to the outside of the box, he laid it off to Rashford, who moved it to his right foot and curled a shot past the custodian to double United’s lead. After a protracted spell of bad play, Rashford put on a fantastic display that should signal a turnaround for the player.

Shortly after, De Ligt’s close-range shot was blocked, giving United a chance to score a third.

Zirkzee’s attempt went wide as United surged up the pitch on a counterattack as they came out for the second half, looking like the more motivated team.

Moments later, Zirkzee passed the ball to Mazraoui in an offensive that ended with Ramsdale snatching up his blocked shot. Mazraoui then fired a close-range attempt over the top. Compared to most of the first forty-five minutes, United appeared far more assured in the first few minutes of the second half.

In the 57th minute, Eriksen received a yellow card for refusing to take off Mateus Fernandes’ jersey. By now, United supporters were undoubtedly curious about the exact moment when new addition Manuel Ugarte would make his debut.

After one hour, Ramsdale pushed Rashford’s ferocious long-range attempt over the crossbar for a corner. Rashford’s confidence has obviously increased since his goal.

The moment United supporters had been waiting for finally arrived in the 72nd minute. A clearly fatigued Eriksen was replaced by rookie Manuel Ugarte, and Alejandro Garnacho and Harry Maguire took the places of Rashford and Mazraoui, respectively.

Maguire resumed action shortly after entering the game after a Southampton player went down. One another odd yellow card from the referee.

Following some physical pain, Martinez was replaced by Jonny Evans. Without a doubt, United will be worried about their great centre back experiencing another injury setback.

With 12 minutes remaining, Jack Stephens of Southampton was sent off for a reckless, studs-up attack on Garnacho that sent the Argentine flying to the ground. This afternoon’s refereeing has been really tough.