McTominay shames Casemiro with Man United ‘hunger’, Iraola nearly gone – it’s the 3pm Blackout | OneFootball

Ten Hag knows McTominay “gives his life” for Man United when others cannot say the same, while Iraola is in trouble and Sterling responded to Southgate.

McTominay finally gives Ten Hag the “hunger” he craves at Manchester United As firmly established in folklore as Fergie Time is, Manchester United had never won a Premier League game in which they were trailing in stoppage-time. They chose the most poignant of days to change that at Old Trafford.

Manchester United had, of course, achieved that particular feat in other competitions at least once before – something about corners at the Nou Camp comes to mind – but Scott McTominay offered a fine tribute to the 1999 Champions League final with his remarkable substitute cameo.

With six goals in as many Scotland games this year, McTominay had already displayed a scoring flair rarely seen in half a dozen years of club duty as a limited and largely uncelebrated midfield workhorse. But heading into the next international break he warmed up for matches against Spain and France with a quick and influential cameo against Brentford.

Manchester United were heading for a fourth consecutive home defeat in wretched circumstances – an awful Mathias Jensen goal which could have been prevented at least five times by four different players; Andre Onana struggling enough to start pumping the ball long; Mason Mount being taken off corners – when McTominay intervened.

Perhaps more to the point, it was Erik ten Hag who stepped in to help clean up a mess at least partially of his own making. His substitutions were tailor-made for retrospective criticism, with Casemiro, Mount, Marcus Rashford, Victor Lindelof and Sofyan Amrabat all taken off. Not every replacement was a marked improvement but Alejandro Garnacho and McTominay in particular were transformative.

“These games give fuel to the dressing room,” the Dutchman said after the game. “In football, it is eat or get eaten. Too many times in the first half of this season we got eaten by opponents who are more hungry. This can’t be. Every player has to deliver that in every second he is on the pitch.”

So thinly-veiled was the message that one could see directly through Casemiro and Rashford in particular. Brilliant they may be, both were among those put to shame by players of lesser ability but – at least currently – infinitely more fight.

McTominay typified that difference and could have provided a catalyst for the club’s season. As Ten Hag said: “You see he is Manchester United in everything in his heart, he is playing for the badge, he gives his life. When you come in with the end of the game near and you bring that mindset, that energy and that confidence, he fought for every meter, for every ball, and he was rewarded.”

Scott McTominay celebrates a late brace which gave Manchester United a last-gasp win

Sterling sticks it to Southgate as Chelsea dagger plunged into Burnley Another England squad meant yet more indignation at those selected and those snubbed this week, before what is becoming the most frustrating aspect of it all: the grand explanations from Gareth Southgate.

The latest point the England manager proffered in self-defence was to warn against “recency bias” when picking players, having recalled Ollie Watkins after the Aston Villa striker’s hat-trick against Brighton. Southgate’s critics have used his past comments on choosing squads based on “form” more than “reputation” as a stick with which to unfairly beat him, but this was plain nonsense.

In the case of Raheem Sterling, Southgate opted against restoring one of his most-trusted lieutenants to the side because of how well his competitors for minutes are playing. And when Jarrod Bowen is in this kind of mood it is difficult to argue.

But Sterling’s actions spoke loud enough against Burnley as he contributed to all four of Chelsea’s goals in a resounding comeback win.

The forward forced an own-goal equaliser, won the penalty Cole Palmer converted, scored himself, did the legwork for Nicolas Jackson’s late strike and generally tormented Vitinho as Chelsea recorded back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since March, the Blues scoring more than three goals in a game for the first time since April 2022.

Call it recency bias, form or anything in between: the 28-year-old underlined why his 82nd England cap, won in that World Cup quarter-final defeat to France almost a year ago, will surely not be his last.

International break looms large for Iraola as Everton comments come back to bite him The wait goes on for Bournemouth to play a single fixture they didn’t lose the corresponding version of last season, but Everton (a) must have been earmarked by the Cherries as a team to pick off for their first win of the campaign.

In fact, Andoni Iraola was happy to state as such in the build-up to their visit of Goodison Park.

“We knew it was a possibility,” he said of their winless start. “We didn’t want to be here. We wanted to be with more points but now I think in the next games we will see where we are exactly as a football team. The first chance we have to obtain the first win is tomorrow, Everton, away. A club that is with us in the standings, it’s a good chance.”

Not uncharacteristically for the lowest scorers in the entire Premier League, it was one they failed to convert. Bournemouth could not muster a single shot on target until they were 3-0 down and already beaten by an Everton side suffering from recent home discomforts, having won just one of their last nine games at Goodison Park.

That outlier? The clean-sheet win over Bournemouth which helped keep the Toffees up on the final day of last season.

Everton’s progress since then has not been linear but they are clearly moving in the right direction under Sean Dyche, with their impressive underlying numbers starting to pay dividends. Bournemouth cannot say the same despite swapping Gary O’Neil for Iraola and spending more than £100m on new signings in the highly-rated Spaniard’s first summer transfer window.

Perhaps the two most important of those – midfielders Alex Scott and Tyler Adams – remain sidelined with no suggestion that they are close to returning from injury. There is sympathy for Iraola in that instance but patience in his process is quickly dissipating.

Ilia Zabarnyi made a couple of notable mistakes in possession, including for an opening goal James Garner took delightfully, shaping his finish around the retreating Lewis Cook and past an unsighted Neto.

Later in the first half, the keeper’s punch from a Vitalii Mykolenko cross was sent emphatically back from whence it came by Jack Harrison, who lurked on the edge of the penalty area and curled a sublime effort in off the underside of the bar. After the break, Abdoulaye Doucoure repeated his trick from May with his third goal of the season to underline the gulf between two sides only separated by four points.

Iraola promised that the world would soon start to “see where we are exactly as a football team” with a theoretically kinder run of fixtures. For Bournemouth to start that sequence of games with a heavy defeat against a relegation rival perhaps revealed more than the manager would have hoped. Then again, if things continue he is unlikely to retain that role for long. An international break can be a notoriously twitchy time for club chairmen.

Basham injury the latest insult to Sheffield United’s miserable start The last three Premier League games Fulham had won by more than a single goal were against Southampton, Leicester and Leeds. The Premier League table makes for ugly enough reading from a Sheffield United perspective but the omens are hardly in favour of the Blades either.

Paul Heckingbottom’s side continue to put up something resembling a fight in most of their games – do try and ignore the Newcastle fans sniggering in the back – but their inherent lack of requisite quality tends to tell in the end.

One point from eight games is a miserable return and four consecutive defeats is a slide from which it is almost impossible to envision Sheffield United disembarking. And while it is difficult to see any individual doing much better to inspire the Blades than Paul Heckingbottom, that is hardly the most resounding argument for maintaining his employ.

Fulham also continue to meander along harmlessly in mid-table as a paragon of inconsistency: form of WLDLWDLW is a sight to behold for Marco Silva.

But ultimately, thoughts must be with Chris Basham after that horrific injury. “I struggled to watch it the second time,” was Michael Dawson’s take on Soccer Saturday and that about sums it up. Get well soon.