United's vanilla display at Villa may yet save Ten Hag

Manchester United have rarely found relief in a five-game winless run but, for the second time in four days, there was some respite for the beleaguered Erik ten Hag.

- RICHARD JOLLY

For the first time in a while, too, there was evidence he could construct a game plan and his players could execute it.

If a stalemate was a damage-limitation exercise, it may help spare Ten Hag the ultimate punishment of the sack. The watching Sir Jim Ratcliffe might be inclined to grant him a stay of execution. Ten Hag can argue that four of those five winless games, sandwiching the trauma against Tottenham, have finished level.

It wasn’t a thriller at the Villa but it provided the antidote to the chaotic 3-3 in Porto. United can claim they succeeded where Bayern Munich failed, taking a point at Villa Park this week. If Ten Hag’s team were underdogs, they played like it, too. But they did so with a determination and an organisation that suggested they have not given up on him. There can be a strangeness to some of Ten Hag’s selections, but this was a day when he felt justified: Jonny Evans, an unexpected inclusion, delivered a man-of-the-match display.

Evans is the throwback, the remnant of more successful days. United’s vocal travelling support did not turn on Ten Hag, instead running through their songbook celebrating past favourites, many of them Evans’ former teammates.