Man Utd manager curse spreads beyond Old Trafford as Newcastle fluke their way to third

Wolves have taken six points from a possible 42 since Gary O’Neil was linked with Old Trafford, which leads us to wonder whether the Manchester United manager curse knows no bounds. Also, how on earth are Newcastle third?

Gary O’Neil signed a new four-year deal in the summer on the back of a season in which his Wolves side were tipped to struggle but were never in danger of being relegated.

After one point from four games, making it six points from 14 when combined with the end of last season, there will be growing concern that the predicted problems in his debut campaign may be realised in his second despite being comfortably the better team in defeat to Newcastle. Wolves can thank Manchester United for their struggles.

Whether due to an inflated opinion of himself on the back of rumours linking him with a move to Old Trafford, a United effect so strong that it leads to a manager’s demise even when they’re merely linked with the job, or – almost certainly – through pure coincidence, things have gone downhill for O’Neil and Wolves ever since United ‘wanted talks’ with the former Bournemouth boss at the end of March.

We don’t know exactly what led United to consider O’Neil, though we assume his tactical ability was at the forefront of their thinking over how good he looks in a suit on the touchline amid reports that they were set to offer him an ‘insulting’ demotion to assistant coach.

After 70 minutes of this game we would assume, given Ten Hag’s ability to the contrary, that they were particularly drawn to O’Neil’s capacity to organise and get the best out of a fully-functioning midfield.

Mario Lemina scored the goal after a quite wonderful dummy by Joao Gomes, and very nearly provided a sublime assist for Jorgen Strand Larsen, who led the line well throughout.

It was very easy to see why Gomes drew so much interest from the Premier League elite – including United – throughout the summer after a typical all-action display and just as hard to watch new signing Andre, who joined from Fluminese for £19m this summer, without thinking he would have been the ideal partner for Kobbie Mainoo at the heart of the United midfield, having been linked with a move to Old Trafford along with the many other alternatives to Manuel Ugarte .

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The Brazilian broke up play, kept it simple when required but always looked to be progressive, whether that meant passing forward or driving with the ball at his feet from the back. If Ugarte proves to be as good as Andre was on his full debut, Ten Hag and United will be delighted.

He was taken off for Tommy Doyle moments after Fabian Schar’s long-range deflected effort looped over Sam Johnstone to give Newcastle parity that they didn’t deserve, and the replacement could and should have done more to prevent Harvey Barnes cutting in on his right foot five minutes later, with fellow substitute Matt Doherty even more to blame, before the winger curled a shot beautifully into the top corner.

Newcastle had managed their best ever start to a Premier League season even before this smash-and-grab victory, picking up seven points from their opening three games, and they now have ten from four having failed to convince in any of their opening fixtures.

It’s not entirely clear what’s wrong with them. It’s not as though they’re particularly terrible in any one area, but there appears to be a collective malaise in the team, like none of them are entirely sure of themselves, apart from in very specific moments like Barnes’ howitzer.

We’ve got to be careful on a day in which we applauded Arsenal for winning while being a bit rubbish that we don’t slam Newcastle for doing the same, but Eddie Howe’s side weren’t in control of this game at any point and could have been two or three down before a big slice of fortune got them back into the game.

While Arsenal will surely get back to being brilliant after an off day in which they still won, it feels as though Newcastle will continue to struggle for form and that the negative results are bound to follow sooner rather than later.

Wolves meanwhile will hope a win is around the corner after a performance that suggests the Manchester United manager curse that’s unreasonably taken hold will soon be dispelled.