Relief for Rasmus Hojlund and Manchester United

Premier League: Man Utd, Luton, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest all win

By Sporting Life

23:06 · TUE December 26, 2023

Relief for Hojlund as United stun Villa

Rasmus Hojlund broke his Premier League duck as Manchester United celebrated Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s investment in the club by battling back from two goals down to beat Aston Villa 3-2.

Villa were on course to move level on points with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table following first-half goals from John McGinn and Leander Dendoncker at Old Trafford.

But the hosts levelled thanks to Alejandro Garnacho’s double before 20-year-old Hojlund, who cost an initial £64million from Atalanta in the summer, stole the headlines with an 82nd-minute winner on his 15th top-flight appearance.

The rousing comeback victory came two days after Ratcliffe agreed to buy a 25 per cent stake in United and ended a four-match winless run without scoring to ease mounting pressure on manager Erik ten Hag, whose side hit 16/1 in-play with Sky Bet.

United rise to sixth, while Villa remain third after blowing a major opportunity.

Liverpool beat Burnley to go top

Liverpool moved top of the Premier League after Darwin Nunez ended his goal drought in a 2-0 success at second-bottom Burnley.

Nunez fired Jurgen Klopp’s men into a sixth-minute lead at Turf Moor with his first strike in 13 matches in all competitions before substitute Diogo Jota sealed victory late on with his 50th goal for the club.

Mohamed Salah hit the crossbar and Harvey Elliott saw his second-half strike ruled out for offside with the score still 1-0, while Jacob Bruun Larsen almost snatched an equaliser for the Clarets.

Victory for the Reds lifted them two points above Arsenal, who host West Ham on Thursday, while lowly Burnley are five points from safety following a 14th defeat of the season.

Luton stage late comeback at Blades

Carlton Morris climbed off the bench to create two own goals in four minutes for Luton as they beat Sheffield United 3-2 in a crucial Premier League basement battle.

The Blades were on course for an important victory as goals from Oli McBurnie and Anel Ahmedhodzic overturned Alfie Doughty’s first-half opener for the Hatters.

But substitute Morris was the orchestrator as Jack Robinson and Anis Slimane put through their own net to give Luton back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time.

The match was also notable for being the first Premier League match to be officiated by a black referee for 15 years as Sam Allison took the whistle and he mainly stayed away from controversy, apart from a contentious decision to award a corner in the build-up to Robinson’s own goal.

Luton were not complaining as the festive season which began with a win over Newcastle on Saturday added another vital three points and they will believe survival is a real possibility going into the second half of the campaign.

It looks like the Blades will need a miracle to get themselves out of the bottom three as they have just nine points at the halfway mark and this could be a damaging loss.

Solanke continues form as Bournemouth beat Fulham

Dominic Solanke continued his impressive scoring form with a second-half penalty as Bournemouth secured a 3-0 victory over Fulham at the Vitality Stadium.

Andoni Iraola made two changes from the Cherries’ win over Nottingham Forest, and they combined to create the opener as a fine run by Alex Scott set up Justin Kluviert’s opener just before half-time.

Solanke made Joao Palhinha pay for bringing down Antoine Semenyo inside the box shortly after the hour mark, before Luis Sinisterra put the icing on the cake with a third goal in stoppage time.

Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno’s frustrations got the better of him late on as he appeared to push a ball boy, later returning to apologise to the youngster who seemed to take the incident in stride.

Wood hat-trick inspires Forest at Newcastle

Chris Wood scored a hat-trick against his former club to inspire Nottingham Forest to a 3-1 win at Newcastle.

It gave new Forest boss Nuno his first win in charge having replaced Steve Cooper as head coach last week.

Wood, the man for whom the Magpies’ new owners paid Burnley £25million in January last year in a bid to stave off relegation, took advantage of woeful defending to plunder a treble which ended his former club’s seven-game winning league run at St James’ Park and condemned them to a sixth defeat in seven games in all competitions.

It was little more than the visitors deserved on a day when Eddie Howe’s men, who took the lead through a contentious Alexander Isak penalty, were ripped apart by Anthony Elanga and Morgan Gibbs-White in front of a disbelieving crowd of 52,207.

Victory on Tyneside served as a boost to Forest’s survival hopes, but left a huge question mark over Newcastle’s chances of repeating last season’s top-four finish with a trip to Liverpool and Manchester City’s visit to St James’ to come either side of their FA Cup third-round tie against Sunderland.

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