Say what you like about Manchester United – and we do, at great length and frequency – there is no denying they retain a certain flair for the dramatic.
Are they a good side? No, clearly not, but good sides can be boring and United are rarely that. Which is quite something for a team that even after today has still scored fewer Premier League goals away from home this season than Ipswich, and has still managed a mere 23 points from 28 games against teams that will be in this division with them next season.
What United goals lack in frequency they make up for in drama. The Europa League win over Lyon will take some topping, but United’s Premier League season, for all its strife, has not been without its late charms. The late show at Man City was incredible, and if the late drama they needed to beat Southampton at home told its own story it was still quite something.
And now they’ve got a point at Bournemouth through a goal from Rasmus Hojlund of all people. Again, sometimes the sheer scarcity is part of it. His fourth Premier League goal of the season earned United a scarcely deserved point here in a game that hinged on a controversial sending off for Bournemouth striker Evanilson.
It does unfortunately mean we have to talk a little bit about VAR, so sorry about that but we’ll be brief. The on-field yellow card felt entirely fair for a challenge that ended up looking far worse due to the Bournemouth man’s slip as he went into it. The slip, so crucial to the whole event, merited no mention in VAR’s discussions, which means one of only two things is possible: they either somehow entirely missed something very obvious, or it’s not considered relevant and the outcome is all that matters.
Neither of those feels like a satisfactory outcome, and what amounted to 30-or-so minutes in which Bournemouth’s numbers were reduced was a game quite unlike the 68 minutes that preceded it.
The story for those first 68 minutes had been one largely of Bournemouth control and United self-destruction. The only goal had come from United doing what they so often do and making life unnecessarily hard for themselves, somehow here contriving to concede mere seconds after having a free-kick on the edge of their own box. Two ill-judged short passes and some standard Bournemouth pressing later, the ball was swung into the United box for Evanilson to flick into the path of Justin Kluivert. Antoine Semenyo got there first and hammered it home via a slight deflection.
And it had been coming. United improved slightly as the first half went on, but it was barely measurable and fell firmly into ‘could not get any worse’ territory.
The start of the second half had seen normal service resumed with Bournemouth well on top and seemingly in full control before the red card. The excellent Dango Ouattara hit the post with a cheeky free-kick from wide on the right and a second home goal seemed far likelier than an equaliser, until the red card changed the dynamic.
For the first time all afternoon, Bruno Fernandes – player of the season if you’re being absurdly contrarian about things for the sheer sake of it – started to exert some influence on proceedings and while that isn’t a guarantee of anything for this moribund United side it is just about the only thing that indicates the possibility of things happening.
You’d need a heart of stone to begrudge Hojlund the outpouring of emotion in his celebration of his late contribution to a game that is very obviously not the most important engagement on United’s calendar currently, and at least one of the fanbases that might have such hearts on these matters is currently far too busy having a big old title party.
Such parties remain as far away as ever for a United side forced to take comfort wherever it may come, and that now includes in scrambling last-gasp draws at Bournemouth.
