In the one step forward, one step back world that Manchester United live in at the moment, they took a step in the right direction against Wolves at Molineux.
Whether it is significant or not remains to be seen.
After all, the big win at Crystal Palace nine days ago was followed by a terrible draw against third-placed West Ham.
Before that, a three-win streak was followed by three winless games, culminating in a home defeat to an Everton side reduced to 10 men after less than 15 minutes.
Monday night’s 4-1 thrashing of a hapless Wolves was United’s biggest win of the season, equaling a four-goal run that Ruben Amorim’s side have not improved on in the Premier League since he joined the club 13 months ago.
United shot 27, the most in a Premier League game under the Portuguese coach. They have now led games longer this season than they did in the entire 2024-25 campaign.
However, Amorim felt compelled to add a caveat, referencing Wolves’ lack of points on the field and the mutinous atmosphere off it.
“This is a specific case,” he said. “We are facing a team that is really fighting.
“You can feel it in every situation in the game.
“This moment for Wolves is really difficult, as a team and as a club. We took advantage of it.”
That is why Amorim felt United were in danger of squandering an important opportunity to climb into the top six and behind teams in the race for Champions League qualification.
New Wolves coach Rob Edwards felt his team played how it wanted to in the final 15 minutes of the first half. That included scoring his first goal in 540 minutes through Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
It was not the script that Amorim had envisioned. It was certainly not one he wanted on a night when Sir Jim Ratcliffe had come to watch and was photographed in animated conversation with director of football Jason Wilcox in the directors’ box.
He said this to his players before going off to sit alone in the visitors’ dugout with his thoughts before United reappeared for the start of the second half.
“We should have finished that half differently,” he said. “At half-time they understood that we had everything to win the game.
“If you really need a distraction, when you look at Everton, it was three points. We could have had two more points against West Ham. Look at the table. Look at the environment. Look at everything.
“We needed to win the second half. The result didn’t matter.”
Analyzing the match for Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher praised the performance but said: “We assume a bad result is around the corner.”
He is not the only one who thinks this way. United have only kept one clean sheet in the Premier League, against Sunderland at Old Trafford on October 4. Do they have one loss out of nine or two wins out of six?
After failing to take advantage of chances to come second twice and fifth, they are now sixth. If results favor them, they could finish fourth once they play Bournemouth on December 15. Likewise, they could be back in the bottom half of the table.
Andoni Iraola’s men have picked up two points from their last six games, but won 3-0 in each of their last two visits to Old Trafford.
It seems nothing is certain at Manchester United these days, and that includes the availability of their players.
Amorim had thought Dutch international Matthijs de Ligt would be available for Monday’s game after missing the West Ham game with a minor injury. I was wrong. Now the coach says he cannot be sure when De Ligt will be fit.
United remain in talks with the respective national associations of Morocco, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, which Amorim considers a “good sign”, but says he “doesn’t know” whether Noussair Mazraoui, Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo will be cleared to play against Bournemouth before they leave for the African Cup of Nations.
“Let’s wait until midweek,” Amorim said.
When asked what it means to move into sixth place, he added: “Nothing. It’s always the same feeling. We should score more points. But that’s in the past, let’s focus on the future.”
