{"id":305970,"date":"2025-12-09T00:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305970\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T00:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:08:07","slug":"fernandes-at-the-double-as-manchester-united-ease-past-wolves-amid-fan-unrest-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305970\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernandes at the double as Manchester United ease past Wolves amid fan unrest | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Manchester United<\/a>, a soothing return to winning ways to avert any sense another mini-crisis was brewing. Victories are scarcely this comfortable, even if Ruben Amorim\u2019s side needed to navigate the briefest of scares when Wolves equalised with half-time looming. United turned on the style after the break, the manager clenching his right fist when Mason Mount made it 3-1 with a smart volley, building on goals by Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes, who also rounded off the scoring from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

For Wolves, this was yet another demoralising defeat, a 13th in 15 league matches<\/a>. The last time they tasted victory, in April, Matheus Cunha, who enjoyed his return to Molineux in United\u2019s all-black strip, opened the scoring. Nine fan groups totalling thousands of supporters protested against the Wolves owner, Fosun, by boycotting the first 15 minutes. Supporters voiced their anger at the players, too. \u201cYou\u2019re not fit to wear the shirt,\u201d they sang, and jeered J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen when he was taken off. There were pantomime laughs when the fourth official indicated at least nine minutes of stoppage time.<\/p>\n

This season, primed to end in relegation, has been a painful slow puncture. Still, only another 23 league games to go. Next up, a trip to the leaders Arsenal on Saturday. How many points will Wolves take from the remaining 69 available? Will they beat Derby\u2019s unwanted record-low tally of 11 in 2007-08? At this stage last season Southampton, who ended with 12, were on five. The mood music will not change anytime soon and it threatens to be a long six months for Rob Edwards, for whom this was a fourth straight defeat since taking charge. The stands were almost empty long before the final whistle, after which Cunha saluted those who stayed until the end. Wolves are a shell compared to the club that reached Europe under Nuno Esp\u00edrito Santo.<\/p>\n

If ever a goal summed up Wolves\u2019s season, it was Fernandes\u2019s first here. Andr\u00e9, 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. Cunha teed up Fernandes, who, after losing his footing, recovered to shoot after keeping Emmanuel Agbadou at arm\u2019s length, the Wolves resistance feeble. Fernandes\u2019s shot was tame by his standards but beat Sam Johnstone in the Wolves goal. Yerson Mosquera was left in a tangle in the back of the net. Four minutes later, Cunha would have doubled their advantage but for Toti Gomes\u2019s heroic goalline clearance.<\/p>\n

Even the most optimistic Wolves supporters are resigned to relegation. Anger has largely been superseded by apathy. Even the early jeers for Cunha were half hearted. \u201cYou sold the team, now sell the club,\u201d was the now-familiar strain that rained down from the South Bank as those absent for the opening quarter of an hour went to their seats. Wolves\u2019s supporters cycled through the chants against the club\u2019s executive chair, Jeff Shi. \u201cI understand the frustration,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI won\u2019t tell fans what to do. I\u2019d love them to support the players but they have to see effort and commitment in return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few envisaged Wolves levelling on the verge of half-time, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde restoring parity. Or, indeed, Wolves being cheered off \u2013 and not sarcastically \u2013 as they headed down the tunnel at the break. Gomes crossed the ball from left to right and Ki-Jana Hoever sent it back where it came from. David M\u00f8ller Wolfe blasted it into the box and Bellegarde, on the stretch, diverted the ball low into the bottom corner past Senne Lammens.<\/p>\n

Mason Mount celebrates scoring against Wolves in their 4-1 win. Photograph: Darren Staples\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

United reappeared intent on regaining the lead. \u201cThe manager had a few things to say,\u201d Mount said diplomatically of Amorim\u2019s half-time message. Cunha rolled Ladislav Krejci on the edge of the box but, looking for the far top corner, he spooned his shot over. Mbeumo saw a shot blocked, Agbadou thwarted Cunha. United\u2019s pressure was unrelenting.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n

Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Luke Shaw halted Bellegarde advancing and, little did he know, kickstarted a counterattack that led to a goal. Cunha sent a weighted pass through for Diogo Dalot, flying forward on the overlap, who squared the ball for Mbeumo to do the rest. It was a strike that killed any hopes of an unlikely comeback win. Mount, who scored the winner at Palace<\/a> on United\u2019s previous away outing, made sure. 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, played onside by Agbadou, arrived unmarked to volley in.<\/p>\n

There was still time for more United cheer. First, the travelling supporters rejoiced at the 79th-minute arrival of Kobbie Mainoo, this his third appearance since October. Then, Mosquera was penalised for handball and Fernandes scored his second of the night from the spot, lashing his penalty low into the corner to lift United into sixth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Manchester United, a soothing return to winning ways to avert any sense another mini-crisis was brewing. Victories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-305970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}