(Football news) The Dutchman oversaw a 2-0 Europa League success over PAOK in the week, while the Foxes left it incredibly late to steal a point from a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town.
Under the watchful eye of Ruben Amorim, who will settle into his Carrington office during the international break, Manchester United initially struggled to pick PAOK’s lock on Thursday evening, before a dash of Amad Diallo inspiration sunk the Greek giants.
After a goalless first 45 minutes at Old Trafford, the Ivorian attacker’s looping header found the far side of the net before he cut inside on his left foot and found the far corner in a manner that Arjen Robben and Mohamed Salah would have been proud of.
Diallo’s double not only extended Van Nistelrooy’s unbeaten run as interim boss to three matches but also propelled Manchester United to their first Europa League success of the season at the fourth attempt, but Premier League matters now take precedence for the Red Devils once more.
A spectacular Moises Caicedo volley forced Manchester United to accept just one point against Chelsea in last weekend’s 1-1 draw, leaving the bottom-half strugglers languishing in 13th place in the Premier League table, albeit mathematically closer to the top four than the relegation zone at the time of writing.
A meager record of just one win from six Premier League games indicates that Amorim will not be able to reverse Manchester United’s fortunes overnight, especially as the Red Devils have only produced a paltry nine top-flight goals so far this season too, their lowest total since 1973-74.
When Leicester attacker Jordan Ayew saw his goal-bound strike blocked by Ipswich’s Cameron Burgess at Portman Road, it appeared that it was not going to be the Foxes’ day against the Tractor Boys, who were leading deep into added time thanks to Leif Davis’s lovely strike.
However, Ayew dramatically made it second time lucky against Kieran McKenna’s winless side, linking up with Jamie Vardy before coolly slotting home into the bottom corner to salvage a slice of the spoils for Steve Cooper’s troops, ending their two-game losing run in all tournaments.
As fellow newly promoted teams Ipswich and Southampton sit below the dreaded dotted line, Leicester have cemented themselves in a partially comfortable 15th place in the table, five points clear of the relegation zone and just two points worse off than Sunday’s hosts, Manchester United.
The Foxes will therefore leap above the Red Devils in the rankings with a shock success at Old Trafford, where goals should be guaranteed on both ends, as Leicester have scored and conceded in all five of their Premier League away games in the 2024-25 season.
The same was true in Manchester United and Leicester’s EFL Cup clash at Old Trafford on October 30, but five of those seven strikes went to the Red Devils in Van Nistelrooy’s debut match, and not since January 1998 have the hosts failed to make the net bulge against the Foxes in a Premier League contest.
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