Can Manchester United spark a comeback?

With the Premier League recommencing at the weekend, Jose Mourinho's Manchester United are faced with the uphill battle of facing Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge. Let's delve into the current state of the club by assessing the most recent happenings at Old Trafford prior to the international break.

Going into the match against Newcastle United, there seemed to be little hope of United delivering a positive performance on the pitch. Suffering from their worst start to a Premier League campaign to date, as well as being winless in four matches, United seemed to resemble their former selves only by name.

In addition to the poor run of form, there has been much speculation of dressing room rows between players and manager, fan dissatisfaction being directed towards Mourinho and co, in the form of booing at the full-time whistle, and United legends such as Gary Neville and Paul Scholes calling out the team and manager on their failure to uphold the club’s superlative reputation.

Soon enough, the Red Devils’ current issues were reflected in their performance on the field, as Newcastle United took a 2-0 lead in the 10th minute. As the half-time whistle blew, the boos of disgruntled supporters echoed around Old Trafford, mirroring the embarrassment at West Ham last week.

Whilst the first 70 minutes accurately depicted United’s lacklustre season thus far, a breath-taking free kick by Juan Mata sparked a revolution. Following this opening goal for United, the Red Devils played the most vivacious, fast-paced and innovative game of football that we’ve seen all season. A total of 18 shots were taken, with 10 on target, whilst a colossal 609 passes were completed.

Most importantly, goals from Martial and Sanchez secured the comeback along with the three points, which should greatly assist Sanchez in redeeming himself in the eyes of the United fanbase. Probably the main question on everyone’s mind, is what sparked such a significant change of fortune within the 90 minutes?

The first factor in this rapid improvement would be a change in attitude. Before the halftime break, United seemed unmotivated and disinterested in narrowing the deficit. This resulted in slow build-up play, few shots and gaps in the defence that the Toon Army was able to expose from early on. Once the halfway point of the second half was reached, the Red Devil’s approach changed.

Suddenly their movement on the ball was much quicker, players were throwing themselves forwards on the attack and a generally more lively performance in all aspects of gameplay was achieved. Shaw and Martial immersed themselves in providing scoring opportunities from the left flank, whilst Mata, Fellaini, Sanchez and Lukaku all put high work rates into penetrating Newcastle’s defence. United’s newfound optimism paid off with three goals in the space of 20 minutes.

The second factor that was vital to the turnaround was United’s tactical decisions. Love him or hate him, Jose Mourinho influenced the result by bring on three substitutes who all proved to be key contributors to the epic comeback. Marouane Fellaini brought a stability to the midfield that was previously lacking, and took a fair number of shots at goal.

This was a vast improvement to the contribution of an unsettled and erratic McTominay, who made way for the number 27. Mata, who replaced centre-back Bailly, took a phenomenal free-kick to open United’s scoring, whilst Sanchez, who came on for a frustrated Rashford, ended his goal drought in the most emphatic manner by netting the winner.

What these factors prove is that United possesses the talent, attitude, perseverance and tactical understanding of a world-class team, even if such qualities have not been exhibited often enough this season. Whether or not Mourinho remains in the managerial driving seat, United still have the class to succeed in bringing home silverware, so long as the correct approach is taken in subsequent matches.

So long as United replicate their last performance at Stamford Bridge, the match against Chelsea should provide fans with a non-stop football extravaganza.