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For Manchester United, a soothing return to winning ways to avert any sense another mini-crisis was brewing. Ruben Amorim’s side cruised to a comfortable win, navigating the briefest of scares after Wolves equalised but turned on the style after the interval. The visiting manager clenched his right fist when Mason Mount volleyed in to make it 3-1, building on goals by Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes, who also rounded off the scoring.
For Wolves, this was yet another demoralising defeat, a 13th in 15 league matches. The last time they tasted victory, in April, Matheus Cunha, who enjoyed his return to Molineux, opened the scoring. Nine fan groups protested against the Wolves owner Fosun by boycotting the first 15 minutes of the match. They voiced anger at the players, too. “You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” they sang, and later jeered Jørgen Strand Larsen when he was taken off.
If ever there was a goal to sum up a season, it was Fernandes’s first here. André, facing his own goal, was dispossessed by Casemiro midway inside the Wolves half and the United midfielder located Cunha on the edge of the 18-yard box. United were two v one, Emmanuel Agbadou faced up to Cunha aware, to his left, Fernandes was lurking. Cunha teed up his teammate, who, after losing his footing upon arriving in the area, recovered to shoot after keeping Agbadou at arm’s length, the Wolves resistance feeble at best. Fernandes’s shot was tame by his standards but sufficient to beat Sam Johnstone in the Wolves goal. Yerson Mosquera’s desperate attempt to keep the ball out culminated in the Wolves defender being left in a tangle in the back of the net.
Four minutes later, United would have doubled their advantage but for the Wolves captain Toti Gomes’s heroic goalline clearance. Johnstone saved from Mbeumo after Fernandes slipped a pass into the channel but then Cunha arrived on the scene, on the edge of the six-yard box, in search of the leftovers. Cunha beat a sliding Agbadou to the punch and wellied a shot at goal, but Gomes hacked it clear with his left boot. Rob Edwards’ pre-match rallying cry felt prescient. “Do you want to fade away, or do you want to fight?” the Wolves head coach asked. “Are you being brave, are you sprinting back?”
Even the most optimistic Wolves supporters are resigned to relegation but it is the manner that hurts, with fans pointing the finger at the owner Fosun’s running of the club. Cunha, back at Molineux wearing the No 10 but in United’s all-black strip, was the latest high-profile exit in the summer, a £62.5m sale. In some quarters anger has been superseded by apathy. Even the jeers for Cunha’s touches were half-hearted. “You sold the team, now sell the club,” was the now-familiar strain that rained down from the South Bank as those supporters absent for the opening quarter of an hour returned to their seats. Wolves’ supporters cycled through the chants against the club’s executive chair, Jeff Shi.
As the fourth official indicated at least two minutes of first-half stoppage time, Wolves were fortunate to trail by only one goal. Few could have predicted what came next, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde levelling on the verge of half-time. Or, indeed, Wolves being cheered off – and not sarcastically – as they headed down the tunnel at the break. Gomes crossed the ball from left to right and then Ki-Jana Hoever, preferred to Jackson Tchatchoua, sent it back where it came from. David Møller Wolfe blasted it into the box and Bellegarde, on the stretch, diverted the ball low into the bottom corner past Senne Lammens.
United reappeared for the second half intent on regaining the lead. Almost immediately Ladislav Krejci was booked for taking down Fernandes just after halfway. A minute later Cunha rolled Krejci on the edge of the box but, looking for the far top corner, he spooned his shot over. Then Mbeumo saw a shot blocked after Johnstone forgot to claim the ball after smothering Cunha. United flew forward on the attack again, Agbadou thwarting Cunha; in the buildup Mount scissored a sumptuous first-time pass into Mbeumo’s path. United’s pressure was unrelenting.
Luke Shaw, again on the left of a back three alongside Ayden Heaven, halted Bellegarde advancing upfield and, little did he know, kickstarted a counterattack that led to a goal. Krejci could count himself unfortunate his interception to cut out Fernandes’s pass went straight to Cunha. The Brazil forward played a superb weighted pass through for Diogo Dalot, flying forward on the overlap, who squared the ball for Mbeumo to do the rest. Johnstone exchanged words with Mosquera.
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It was a goal that killed any hopes of an unlikely comeback win. Mount, who scored the winner at Palace on their last away outing, made sure on 62 minutes. Agbadou stopped a goalbound shot by Fernandes but then seemed to think it was job done. Fernandes reclaimed possession and scooped a pass into the box, where Mount arrived unmarked and played onside by Agbadou, to volley in.
There was still time for more United cheer. First, the travelling supporters in the lower tier of the Steve Bull Stand rejoiced at the 79th-minute arrival of Kobbie Mainoo for only his third appearance since October. Then, following a video assistant review, Mosquera was penalised for handball and Fernandes scored his second of the night from the spot, lashing his penalty low into the corner.
