Manchester United have failed to hit their high standards – John O’Shea

United travels to Denmark to face FC Midtjylland in the first leg of its UEFA Europa League last-32 clash on Friday (AEDT). Eddie Howe’s men never recovered from the loss of the early goal to Imbula, the Belgian-born midfielder not breaking his stride as he latched onto a Simon Francis clearance to volley low into the far corner from just outside the area. He spoke with anger afterwards about being second best, but the team overall does not share the captain’s fire.

“I don’t think anyone expected us to get the result today based on the form of Manchester United in 2016”.

Newcastle were thumped 5-1 at Chelsea in the late kickoff as the champions produced their best performance of a poor league season to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to 12 since Guus Hiddink replaced sacked Jose Mourinho. If we win more matches, we’ll get out of trouble.

“It might be that the Europa League is the way to get into the Champions League”. There have been big injuries, they have lost some very important players and in the Premier League, the quality is increasing. Sunderland’s pressure mounted and they had penalty appeals turned down by referee Andre Marriner, who was well placed to wave play on when Khazri’s shot struck Morgan Schneiderlin on the arm inside the area. A frightful December – where they lost to relegation candidates Bournemouth and Norwich and failed to win even a single game in any competition – may well come back to bite them come the end of the season.

The top four finish that represented a minimum requirement back in August, is slipping away from him and he was in no mood to argue otherwise.

With league games running out and United facing a tough run-in, 3 points at the Stadium of Light will be absolutely critical if they want to keep in touch with the Champions league qualification spots. Neither will the FA Cup. I’m absolutely delighted for the lads, it was a great performance. “It was that bit easier”.

“You will see with managers, they want to bring in young players when the team is doing well”.

Sam Allardyce admitted it was the worth the wait after claiming his first win over Manchester United in 14 years.

Anthony Martial, who had equalized for United, cleared a header from Lamine Kone off the goal line but the ball ricocheted off De Gea’s back and went into the net in the 82nd minute. It was officially credited as a De Gea own goal.

“Then we got Khazri, we’d already got N’Doye on loan, so four players in January is quite an achievement, and the four players have been absolutely outstanding”.