Three Matches In 2021 That Man Utd Suddenly Wish They Could Have Back
Man Utd defeated Aston Villa 3-1 on Sunday again delaying Manchester City being crowned champion. City lost to Chelsea on Saturday and dropped points to Leeds a month ago as well.
If Man Utd defeat Leicester on Tuesday they would cut the gap to seven points with three games left. Seven points can be equated too dropped points in three games.
If they had these three matches back the title race going into these last couple of weeks would have been drastically different, obviously, but if you look back at this season and games that should have been wins, these really stand out as big what-ifs.
There are more than three matches that could have forced a better title race, but my top three are: Sheffield United at home, Everton at home and Crystal Palace away.
Man Utd Fall to Relegated Sheffield United in January
United hosted rock bottom Sheffield United on a Wednesday after knocking out rivals Liverpool in the FA Cup the weekend before. Sheffield United from the beginning of the season looked destined to go down after languishing at the bottom for months.
Even in January there was a consensus that Sheffield United are going to go down and Man Utd should go into these types of games and win, especially at home.
After poor clearing and sustained pressure from the Blades, Oliver Burke had his shot deflect off of Axel Tuanzebe and past David de Gea to steal the points in 74th minute. United were not able to get a late equalizer and Sheffield United came into Old Trafford and took 3 points.
A huge and obvious blow in the title race for Man Utd. Since that defeat at home to Sheffield United, Man Utd have not lost in the league since.
Man Utd Drop Two Points to Everton in Stoppage Time
United went into the game against Everton only three points behind City, but City had a game at hand. They could have been level on points before City destroyed Liverpool but instead ended up being five points behind City after the weekend.
After going up 2-0 at half time, United were pegged back quick in the first six minutes of the second half. A goal from Scott McTominay in the 70th minute put United back up.
A Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time meant that the points would be shared on the day at Old Trafford.
United would go on to draw against another soon to be relegated team, West Brom, and Man City made up their games and United were now down 10 points.
The West Brom game was a contender for one of the games, but the Crystal Palace game really cemented the title going to City.
A Stale 0-0 Draw in London
Man Utd headed to London on the 3rd of March to face a dreadful Crystal Palace side that could not score a goal to save their lives. BUT, no one could score on them either and they were fine playing like that.
All it was ever going to take was one goal for United and they would get the three points instead they left London frustrated by a Palace team that did not have their best player and former United player, Wilfred Zaha.
Man Utd could only muster one shot goal despite having 63% of the possession on the day. The weather was grim and foggy, typical English weather, you would have hoped for United to test the keeper from long range, get some shots off.
City would go on to take a 14 point lead after this result and it was becoming clear they would win the title.
Manchester United could not get it done on those days and if you look back on what could have been these results really stick out. The seven points dropped in these matches would have made things really exciting going in to the final few games.