Red Alert with Steve Shankyaski

What a difference a week makes in football. Enormous pressure was building for the squad, and after the shock of the home humiliation by Spurs, we needed to respond.

Two minutes into the Newcastle game, we’re 1-nil down from a Shaw own goal. Not an ideal start by any stretch, but MUFC didn’t falter. After a sending off during international break for Maguire, his situation and poor form came under great scrutiny but he replied with a solid performance at Newcastle and even got his name on the score sheet. Not only was his head back in the game, he used it to bang in our first goal and settle his nerves.

You could feel our confidence growing in the game, even after Bruno had his first penalty saved in 18 taken, and in the final 20 minutes we started to really dominate Newcastle. The team scored one of the best counter-attacking goals you will see this season with Bruno placing the final sweet touch into the net. Newcastle were conquered 4-1, and United are working as a cohesive team again.

Then, three days later, MUFC returned to the Champions League to face last year's finalist, PSG. Neymar and Mbappe spearhead one of the most expensive squads in the world (except ours). Pressure returned, but nothing galvanises a team better than working under pressure. A second incredible team performance unfolded. Bruno wore the captains armband, which is something I’ve been hoping for since the season started. It makes me smile to think he managed to get the MUFC player of the season only featuring in half of it, and now the captains armband after a few games more.

What a talent and shows how much we needed a player of his type. The game began, and you could really feel the covid-related emptiness of the Parc de Princes. Within 11 minutes De Gea made two incredible saves and kept us alive and able to stick to the game plan. United were awarded a penalty, and I just could feel it was not going to go in after Bruno missing one against Newcastle. The 'keeper saved it, but started his dive about a meter off the line which meant it was retaken. Bruno again steps up, takes a deep breath, but this time we all knew what was going to happen. His ice cold veins returned and we were one goal up. After that Paris were kept continually quiet with some truly incredible performances from Tuanzebe and Wan Bissaka intercepting and snuffing out Mbappe and Neymar.

New signing Alex Telles featured, and amongst other things, looks like he’s lifted the curse of United being unable to put useful corners into the box. I thought Martial looked a little bit nervy all night, and his lack of French national squad selection most likely could attribute to that. It culminated in him closing his eyes to defend a corner and scoring an own goal to put Paris back in the game, but they still never looked like they could deal with our team performance. We pressured and worked all over the pitch, and after a few openings for Rashford down the right hand side that ended up with no end product, he decided to seize a chance and turned on goal with one thing in his mind. What a sizzling second goal in the bottom left corner, and the game was ours. Huge credit goes to Ole Gunner Solskaer too. After we scored the own goal, he transformed the squad shape and brought Pogba on to solidify the back and allow for an extra creative midfield, in the hope to get that second goal. A bold move from Ole and it resulted in two wins under enormous pressure. Chelsea are next, and with several players coming into form and fresh signings out of quarantine, Ole is now in an awkward situation of who does he pick. I hope to see Tuanzebe rewarded for his incredible performance, and Bruno to remain as captain!