Manchester United were held to a 2-2 draw by Aston Villa at Old Trafford in the Premier League
Monday 2 December 2019 08:58, UK
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer conceded his Manchester United side did not deserve to beat Aston Villa after their 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.
United recovered from Jack Grealish's 11th-minute goal to move in front thanks to an own goal by Tom Heaton and a header from Victor Lindelof, but Tyrone Mings equalised just two minutes after their second goal and the hosts could not find a way through after that.
It was another sub-par performance from United, who were fortunate to draw 3-3 with Sheffield United last weekend, and it leaves them ninth in the Premier League table with just four wins from 14 games this season.
Solskjaer bemoaned their poor first-half performance and admitted they have plenty to work on.
"First half it seemed like we couldn't get to grips with going one-nil down," he said in his post-match press conference.
"When you concede a goal as early as that at Old Trafford you've got plenty of time to get back into the game, but I felt we didn't deal with that particularly well and we were lucky to go in at half-time with one each.
"The second half was good, we put pressure on them and created chances. They had a decent chance with Grealish, but we created loads of big ones that could have won this game. Overall, though, I don't think we deserved to - especially after the first half.
"We are a young team. I don't want to use that as an excuse because we are Man United and we want to get a run together. As soon as we get a run of three or four games together here now, that's what we need. That's what these boys need, I feel.
"We just have to make sure we do everything right now until Wednesday because it's a short turnaround."
That meeting with Jose Mourinho's resurgent Tottenham is a daunting prospect and Solskjaer admits his side need to be stronger at holding on to leads if they are going to start climbing up the table.
"The league table at this point is not the biggest concern because it's so tight," he said. "I just need to make sure we get the right performances.
"What I can say is that so far we've had the lead in so many games and we haven't been able to win those games - six or seven times, I'm sure - and we should be better at turning those games into wins.
"I think there's loads of evidence that these boys are closer to winning games than losing games and tipping those margins in our favour.
"Of course we've got to work on different things. The first half today wasn't good enough."
