Manchester United made their worst start to a Premier League Season after 35 years since the 1989-90 season, after collecting only 8 points in 7 games under Erik Ten Hag's managership. After a frustrating 0-0 draw against Aston Villa on 6th October 2024, the Red Devils were confirmed to touch another new low in their recent history.
Manchester United and Aston Villa ended the match in Villa Park without a goal from both sides. It was an uneventful first half and no one got the breakthrough. However, Bruno Fernandes hit the crossbar from a free-kick in the second half, and United had some chances but nothing resulted in a goal.
With this draw, Manchester United is now on a 5-match winless streak with 4 draws and 1 defeat that came against Tottenham in the last matchday.
United's worst start in 35 years
In the 1989-90 season, Manchester United collected only 7 points in 7 matches and eventually finished the league in the 13th position. Surprisingly, that was the fourth season in charge for the club legend, Sir Alex Ferguson!
Despite their poor performance in the league, Ferguson led United to win the FA Cup at the end of the 1989-90 season.
8 - With eight points (W2 D2 L3), this is Manchester United's lowest tally in their opening seven matches of a league season since 1989-90 (7), when they went on to finish 13th under Alex Ferguson - his lowest league finish in charge of the club. Meagre. pic.twitter.com/RF3Z1iBrOo
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 6, 2024
Time is ticking away for Erik Ten Hag as his team is standing in the 14th position in the league table right now. Under Erik Ten Hag, United had a sloppy start in the 2023-24 Premier League season as well, collecting 9 points in seven matches. United went on to finish the last season in 8th place which was their worst finish in the Premier League era.
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Erik Ten Hag showed optimism about the game
🔴 Erik ten Hag: “It’s the fourth clean sheet this season”.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 6, 2024
“You can see we had very good organisation and togetherness”.
“There was good character and good spirit as a team. Determined, resilient”. pic.twitter.com/UpftqJu0tj
Despite heading into the international break with 8 points and standing in 14th place in the league table, coach Erik Ten Hag showered optimism in his words in the post-match press conference. He stated:
"This is our fourth clean sheet of this season and that tells something about the control we have in and out of possession, we are organised very well. In many games so far we create loads of chances.."
After being asked about United's position in the league table and their winless streak of 5 straight matches, he responded:
"Especially, we need to score more because that is, in this moment, the area after this block of games where we are really short. All the other areas, I think we are doing really well: four clean sheets, so that tells something about the defending, organisation. Also the defending of defensive transitions, we are doing really well, so we are really improving on that point. Our build-up play is good, we are calm, composed. We are creating the chances, apart from today."
However, Manchester United fans are running out of patience and they have already mentioned their support in sacking Ten Hag. The time is ticking away for the Dutch as he is now on the verge of getting sacked, and this new low for United will remind Ten Hag of the challenges lying ahead of him.