Wolverhampton Wanderers consigned Manchester United to a third consecutive defeat on Boxing Day, easing to a 2-0 victory at Molineux.
Matheus Cunha danced between the thick clouds of fog, breaking the deadlock inside the opening hour directly from a corner before teeing up Hwang Hee-chan for a match-sealing second. The game had been goalless – and gutless – for the first 47 minutes before a red card for Bruno Fernandes irrevocably changed the contest.
Three entirely deserved points for Vitor Pereira’s new side sees them climb into the relative safety of 17th place while United are only three positions higher in 14th.
How the game unfolded
The only incident of any note from a first half that was mercifully obscured by large plumes of fog was a yellow card for Bruno Fernandes. Manchester United’s mercurial skipper chopped down Matheus Cunha at the end of a mazy run. This seemingly innocuous foul would bring together the game’s two protagonists, who will remember Thursday’s fixture for dramatically different reasons.
Fernandes was promptly handed his second yellow card of the match – and then his third red of the season – for a needless swipe of Nelson Semedo less than two minutes after the restart.
As an out-of-sorts United were reduced to ten men, what had been a tight and tetchy contest morphed into attack vs defence as Wolves poured into the yawning gaps which Fernandes’ dismissal created.
However, it took a moment of set-piece magic from Molineux’s resident wizard to eventually fire the hosts in front. For the second time in the space of seven days, United conceded directly from a corner – taking their disastrous dead-ball reputation to new depths – as Cunha swung a menacing delivery through the fog and into Andre Onana’s net shortly before the hour mark.
Wolves racked up lashings of possession, constantly finding the spare man, but couldn’t translate their numerical superiority onto the scoreboard. Once that clock ticked into the final ten minutes – before eight more were added on by the fourth official – and it remained only 1-0, United began to prey upon Wolves’ nerves which had been shredded by a season of strife.
Hwang belatedly settled the tension with a decisive second deep into stoppage time. Cunha – who else? – charged into an empty United half and selflessly squared for his teammate.
Check out the player ratings for Wolves vs Man Utd here.
In an interview with The Athletic back in 2022, Fernandes warned: “I play against Wolves and there are many Portuguese players [in their squad], but if I have to kick them, I will kick them. If I have to moan at them, I will.” Fernandes can be accused of many things, but at least he is a man of his word.
Following on from a straight red card during a humbling defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in September – which was ultimately overturned – and a double booking against Porto four days later, Fernandes completed a hat-trick of dismissals by kicking Cunha and Semedo.
United’s captain became the first Manchester United player to be sent off three times in the same season across all competitions since Nemanja Vidic during the 2008/09 campaign. While the legendary centre-back could blame an in-form Fernando Torres for his struggles, Fernandes’ petulance has all-to-often been to blame.
Ahead of the trip to Molineux, Ruben Amorim warned that his Portuguese compatriot Vitor Pereira is “a very good coach who will understand us”. That very much proved to be the case as the new Wolves boss neutralised the visitors by matching United’s 3-4-2-1 formation.
In a battle of the back-threes, the game effectively broke down into a battle of individual duels. Each attacking trident was met with a trio of centre-backs, the pair of midfield double pivots faced off in the centre circle, while it was wing-back against wing-back.
Amorim, to his credit, attempted to shift the balance of a largely cagey contest by having Noussair Mazraoui drift infield from right wing-back, adding an extra body to the four-way midfield scrap. While that greased the wheels of United’s buildup, it didn’t lead to a significant sight of goal.
The 47th-minute dismissal of Fernandes, by contrast, proved to be more decisive. Wolves had the ball in United’s net within two minutes of the playmaker’s red card, overloading the right flank as Nelson Semedo squared for an offside Jorgen Strand Larsen.
The hosts had to wait until the 99th minute before eventually converting their numerical superiority, but the red card gave them a sense of control over proceedings which had not existed in an even first half.
Just 20 minutes before the evening offering of Boxing Day action kicked off, The Telegraph produced a report claiming that Arsenal were hotly interested in a move for Wolves’ talismanic forward Matheus Cunha.
The Gunners had not been enticed by another impressive display from the Brazilian on Thursday, or even his overall campaign, but are eyeing Cunha up as an emergency replacement for the injured Bukayo Saka after three years of consistently encouraging output. Many in the PREMIER League and beyond likely share Arsenal’s lofty opinion of the 25-year-old.
A wriggling menace wherever he picked up the ball, Cunha looks decidedly out of place in a team scrapping against relegation. Beyond his superb set piece which ultimately broke the deadlock, Cunha seemed to draw a collective gasp of awe from the Molineux crowd each time he touched the ball, drew a foul or flashed a wry smile. Those Wolves fans may not have many more chances to drool over the Brazilian star while he is still draped in gold.
