Manchester United are now just two wins away from enjoying a five-game winning run that would, of course, allow Frank Ilett—a.k.a. The United Strand—to get a haircut.
Since Sir Jim Ratcliffe reasserted his faith in manager Ruben Amorim, suggesting the Portuguese coach will be in charge at Old Trafford for at least the next three years, Man Utd have won away at champions Liverpool for the first time in 2016 and have beaten bogey team Brighton & Hove Albion at home—the Seagulls had prevailed on their three previous visits to the Theatre of Dreams.
A 2–0 win over Sunderland before the international break means the Red Devils’ winning run has extended to three games, and they now sit sixth in the Premier League table, above Liverpool.
It’s been over a year since Ilett last cut his hair, but the Man Utd supporter’s wait for a trim may conclude on November 8. He was merely attempting to make light of the club’s bleak outlook, and surely wouldn’t have thought United’s wait for a five-game winning run would extend beyond a year, especially given that they’d achieved the feat just months before his challenge started.
When Was Man Utd’s Most Recent Five-Game Winning Run?
Erik ten Hag’s debut season at Manchester United was an undeniable success, especially when you consider the mess the club embarked on in 2021–22. They won the EFL Cup and returned to the Champions League under the Dutchman, who encountered far more issues in his sophomore year.
2023–24 emerged as another trough in United’s recent history, and victory in the FA Cup final at the end of it fatefully convinced INEOS to stick with Ten Hag. It was a season of few highs before they beat Manchester City at Wembley, but there was a productive run in February that threatened to salvage their stuttering campaign.
Their upsurge started with a 4–2 victory over Newport County in the FA Cup fourth round on January 28, during which the Welsh side pegged United back to 2–2 before Antony and Rasmus Højlund struck in the second half to confirm the visitors’ progression.
While an unconvincing win, Ten Hag’s side subsequently won four games in a row in the Premier League. Højlund was in tremendous form, scoring in all of United’s wins. They defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–3 thanks to Kobbie Mainoo’s stunning stoppage-time finish, then beat West Ham United 3–0 with the help of an Alejandro Garnacho brace.
A 2–1 victory at Aston Villa was the most impressive of the bunch, given that the Villans finished fourth that season and lost just three times at home in the league. Scott McTominay won it for the visitors in the 86th minute.
A Højlund brace inside seven minutes proved to be enough for their fifth win on the bounce away at Luton Town, but their run ended at home to Fulham the following weekend.
United are not only searching for five wins on the bounce, which is all Ilett needs, but five Premier League victories in a row. They technically achieved that at the very start of the 2023–24 season, when they beat Wolves 1–0 on the opening weekend after finishing the previous campaign with four successive victories.
Ten Hag also oversaw five consecutive league wins between November 13, 2023, and January 14, 2024, during his first year in the job. That run was capped off by a 2–1 victory in the Manchester derby, when Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford scored within four minutes of each other to overturn a one-goal deficit.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as When Did Man Utd Last Win Five Games in a Row?.