(Football news) Ralf Rangnick and his team will breathe a sigh of relief after a narrow and somewhat lucky win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford in a fixture which saw the visitors have two goals disallowed. Cristiano Ronaldo was absent from the squad due to injury but the Red Devils made a positive start as Scott McTominay header past Emiliano Martinez from close range gave the hosts a lead in the 8th minute from Fred’s inch-perfect cross.

However, Villa largely dominated the fixture from then onwards and were unlucky to not get an equalizer five minutes into the second half when Ezri Konsa headed a free-kick across the face of the goal but Danny Ings’ goal was disallowed after a lengthy VAR check which came to a conclusion that Jacob Ramsey blocked Edinson Cavani in the buildup. It took three and a half minutes for referee Michael Oliver to overturn the decision, which greatly frustrated Steven Gerrard’s side.

Ings was again at the center of another disallowed goal as he clipped the ball over De Gea for Watkins to tap it home only for the offside sign to go up. After that, John McGinn's long-range effort was saved by David De Gea and Ollie Watkins’ shot rattled the crossbar as Villa continued to find an equalizer but failed to find a breakthrough as Manchester United progressed into the fourth round of the FA Cup where they will face Middlesbrough at Old Trafford in the opening weekend of February. 

Despite the extensive use of the word ‘control’ in Ralf Rangnick’s interviews, his team looked far from a side that could dictate proceedings against Aston Villa and can consider themselves fortunate to get a result. Speaking after the match, Rangnick said “I think we showed a reaction after the Wolves game, that is what everyone expected from us. We knew it would be very difficult against Villa. In the first half, I thought we did well. It could have been 3-2 or 4-3 to us at half-time. In the second half, we were on the counter-attack and we could have made more of those situations. We made the wrong decisions at times but when we changed to a diamond in midfield, we had more control.

"In the last 20 minutes, we had more control. We fought well as a team together when it was important. In the end, it was a good win. That was our goal, to proceed to the next round." When asked if he saw progress, Rangnick added: "Yes. To say that this was a perfect game, nobody would believe that of course, it was not. We still have quite a few things we can get better at but a clean sheet was important today and we worked together. Still a lot of things to improve but it is easier to do that with a 1-0 win."

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