For Erik ten Hag, it’s very simple.
“We are all on board, together, on one page,” the Manchester United manager said of his relationship with the club’s leadership after a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.
The next few days will determine whether those above Ten Hag feel the same.
United heads into the two-week international break on a five-match winless run in all competitions and languishing in 14th place in the league, having won just two of its opening seven games this campaign.
Ten Hag had arrived at Villa Park under huge pressure and with the club’s minority owner, Jim Ratcliffe, having failed to say he had faith in the Dutch coach when asked specifically on Friday.
However creditable gaining a point at a revitalized Villa is, it might still not be enough for Ten Hag — especially with United’s new leadership having some time to weigh up his future before the team’s next game.
“We know what we are working toward — it is a long-term project and we have to keep improving the process,” Ten Hag said.
Playing in front of Ratcliffe and the rest of United’s hierarchy, the visitors came closest to scoring when Bruno Fernandes struck a free kick against the crossbar in the 68th.
As a whole, Villa mostly dominated a match played four days after beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Still, United dug in, defended well and earned a draw that followed 3-3 at Porto in the Europa League. It marks a decent response to slumping to a chastening 3-0 home loss to Tottenham last weekend.
“We proved in two tough away games that this is a team,” Ten Hag said. “You saw the preparedness, the spirit but also the belief and the faith they have.”
TOTTENHAM MELTDOWN
This time, it was Tottenham’s turn to collapse.
Leading 2-0 at halftime, Tottenham conceded three goals in an 18-minute span early in the second half to lose 3-2 at Brighton.
“It is a terrible loss for us — as bad as it gets,” Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said.
Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck were the scorers for Brighton, which was repeatedly pulled apart by Spurs in the first half in the same manner as Chelsea did last week in a 4-2 win over the south-coast team.
Right winger Brennan Johnson — scoring for the sixth straight game in all competitions — and playmaker James Maddison both netted for Tottenham but some familiar failings at the back were exposed again.
“The worst defeat since I’ve been here,” was the assessment of Postecoglou, who is in his second season at Tottenham.
Brighton climbed above Tottenham to sixth place with the win. Spurs dropped to ninth.
CHELSEA HELD
Fourth-place Chelsea drew 1-1 with Nottingham Forest thanks to Noni Madueke’s equalizer in the 57th minute at Stamford Bridge.
Forest took the lead eight minutes earlier through Chris Wood and had to play with 10 men from the 78th after James Ward-Prowse’s sending-off after a second yellow card for diving on the ball with his hands to stop Nicolas Jackson launching a breakaway.
There was a melee late in the game, sparked by Forest substitute Neco Williams pushing Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella off the pitch and into Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.
Virtually every player got involved and it led to Cucurella getting shown a yellow card for his role in the incident. That was his fifth booking of the season, which rules him out of Chelsea’s game against Liverpool after the international break. Another Chelsea defender, Wesley Fofana, was also booked and will miss the match at Anfield.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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