Manchester United Must Finally End This Season’s Away Curse

It is only when Manchester United have secured a place in the top four of the Premier League that they can declare this season to be a success.

A return to the Champions League was always the main prize for Erik ten Hag in his first season at Old Trafford and he appears to be on course for it.

Throughout the season United have shown genuine signs of progress; winning their first trophy in six years with the Carabao Cup, reaching the Europa League quarter-finals, which included a rousing two-legged win over the Spanish champions-elect Barcelona, and claiming a place in the FA Cup final to face Manchester City at the start of June.

Ten Hag has quite clearly brought a new discipline, energy and sense of pride to Old Trafford, which has helped drive United’s vast improvement this season.

But the one glaring weakness in this campaign has been United’s dreadful away performances against the Premier League’s leading clubs.

This season against their traditional big six rivals, and a resurgent Newcastle United now need to be added to this club, Ten Hag’s side have so far failed to win in five attempts.

But it is the manner of their defeats that has been the biggest concern, for United have not merely lost, but been completely outplayed and humiliated.

It started with a 6-3 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad stadium last October. The final score line actually managed to flatter United for they had been losing 4-0 after 44 minutes, and 6-1 after 73 minutes.

The only point United have taken against a leading rival was at Stamford Bridge in a 1-1 draw against a struggling Chelsea last October, but they still needed an equaliser in the third minute of added time from Casemiro.

United spurned their chance to remain in the title race when they lost 3-2 to Arsenal in January, but worse was to follow in March when they endured their most embarrassing defeat of modern times when they were beaten 7-0 by Liverpool at Anfield.

This was United’s biggest ever defeat to Liverpool, surpassing a 7-1 loss in the 1895-96 season, and their joint biggest loss in their entire history, equalling the three previous occasions they had lost by this margin, with the most recent being in 1931. It was a day of agony seared into the memories of United fans, with Ten Hag branding his players “unprofessional.”

Newcastle have forced their way into the top four this season and earlier this month United were ambushed 2-0 by them at St James’ Park.

The confusing aspect for Ten Hag is that when these teams have visited Old Trafford they have all been beaten, with the exception of Newcastle who secured a goalless draw.

United’s first win of the season was over Liverpool, a 2-1 victory in August; Arsenal were beaten 3-1 in September, Tottenham vanquished 2-0 in October, and United came back from going a goal behind to beat Manchester City 2-1 in January. Chelsea have yet to visit Old Trafford this season.

United have another opportunity to win away at one of their rivals this Thursday when they face Tottenham at their impressive new stadium in north London.

This will be Tottenham’s first game since their own embarrassing away defeat to Newcastle on Sunday when were 5-0 down by half-time, and eventually lost 6-1. Their interim manager Cristian Stellini has since been sacked, and replaced by another caretaker Ryan Mason.

At first glance this might appear a good time to play them, but a chastened Tottenham will be desperate to rebound and keep alive their hopes of a top four finish in front of their own fans. This has suddenly become a more difficult fixture for United.

But if United want to progress from a team fighting for a top four position to a team challenging for the actual title they have to go to their leading opponents and win.

Six away games against these biggest rivals without a single win would be a miserable record, but United have one last chance to avoid that this week.