Morgan Gibbs-White scored an 82nd-minute winner as Nottingham Forest recorded their first Premier League victory over struggling Manchester United in 29 years to bring 2023 to a miserable end for Erik ten Hag’s side.
It looked as if Marcus Rashford had rescued a point for the visitors when he capitalised on a blunder from Forest keeper Matt Turner 12 minutes from time. But after Turner had redeemed himself with a fine save to deny Christian Eriksen, Forest counter-attacked and Gibbs-White struck the decisive blow from a neat cut-back from former United forward Anthony Elanga.
After a tepid first-half, Nicolas Dominguez opened the scoring as new manager Nuno Espirito Santo steered Forest to back-to-back victories for only their second time since being promoted back to the topflight. For Ten Hag it was another desperate night, and it was in front of Sir Dave Brailsford, who will have a significant say in United’s on-field operations following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s 25% purchase of the Old Trafford outfit.
It was United’s 14th defeat of a dreadful campaign, their most before the end of a year since 1930-31. While Rashford did end a wait of over six hours for a Premier League goal, it means they have been beaten four times in December alone and could end this round of matches in ninth spot, just three points in front of Chelsea.
Ten Hag told Brailsford he did not want to speak to him yet because of the packed Christmas programme but has said he feels INEOS are looking forward to working with him.
Those talks are bound to happen in January, when United only have a single Premier League game, although whether Ten Hag will want to disrupt preparations before a potentially perilous FA Cup third-round tie at League One Wigan on 8 January is open to debate.
It is clear one of the issues Brailsford and fellow INEOS representative Jean Claude-Blanc need to sort out as a matter of priority is recruitment – and there is no greater evidence of where United have gone wrong in that department than Brazil winger Antony.
It is 16 months since Ten Hag pushed to sign Antony, United eventually paying £81m for the winger, making him their second most expensive signing after Paul Pogba.
Sat together in the directors’ box, neither Brailsford nor Sir Alex Ferguson could possibly have been thinking his latest performance made the fee look value for money.
The winger’s supporters say he does not shirk work and can be trusted to track back. That may well be true, but it ignores the point there is little end product from him. Towards the end of the first half, Rashford presented him with a shooting opportunity inside the penalty area but before he could decide how to manipulate the position into a chance, Forest defenders surrounded him, and the chance disappeared.
A few moments later, he shaped as if he was going to take his opponent on at the touchline but, stuck between going down the line or cutting inside as he prefers, he did nothing and the ball ended up going out for a throw.
When he was replaced by Amad Diallo after 54 minutes it meant Antony had failed to score or set up a goal in 21 consecutive appearances. Amad cost £19m and did not do much to justify that smaller fee either – but the Ivory Coast youngster has only just returned from a serious knee injury, so judgement on him should be reserved.
