Cunha, Casemiro and Mbuemo all on song as United see off Brighton to rise into top four
Manchester United's Matheus Cunha (centre) celebrates with team-mates after scoring their side's first goal during the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Picture date: Saturday October 25, 2025.
MANCHESTER United’s recent resurgence continued with a victory that, almost implausibly, lifted Ruben Amorim’s side into the top four of the Premier League, for a few hours at least.
Matheus Cunha, Casemiro and the increasingly impressive Bryan Mbeumo were all on the mark in a third consecutive win for the United manager who, just a few short weeks ago after a demoralising defeat at Brentford, appeared to be fighting for his job.
Since then, wins over Sunderland and Liverpool, followed by this solid outing, have completely altered the mood around Old Trafford.
Not that this win was not without high levels of anxiety, especially when Charalampos Kostoulas headed in a corner from fellow Brighton substitute James Milner in the second of seven minutes of added time to pull the deficit back to one.
But Mbeumo’s second goal of the night, after 96 minutes, killed off any concerns of a late capitulation’s he collected a long ball from Ayden Heaven and finished convincingly from 12 yards.
United took control of the game with two goals inside ten first half minutes, as Cunha scored his first for the club and Casemiro continued what has been an impressive effort to rehabilitate his reputation at United.
Casemiro actually created the opener, on 24 minutes, juggling the ball, chest to feet, 25 yards from goal before threading through a perfect pass for Cunha, whose own first touch to generate space for the shot was no less eye-catching.
As, too, was his finish as he shot into the bottom right-hand corner from the edge of the Brighton area.
If successful teams also need good luck, then the nature of United’s second goal suggested they may also be making strides in that area also.
Not for the first time, Brighton toiled to move the ball out of defence and Jan Paul van Hecke’s ill-advised pass was intercepted by Luke Shaw, the ball breaking for Casemiro who nudged it forward into space.
He finally unleashed a powerful shot from 25 yards which might have been covered by Verbruggen but most certainly was not after it struck Yasin Ayari on the back and diverted from its trajectory towards the right into the bottom left of the keeper’s net.
After losing their last three home meetings with Brighton, this was a marked improvement from United although Amorim’s three-man defence still looks susceptible to being attacked down its flanks.
Former United striker Danny Welbeck showed an impressive turn of pace, considering he turns 35 next month, to speed away down the right and deliver what looked like the perfect cross, only for Yankuba Minteh to glance his shot so wide that it threatened to go out for a throw-in.
And Leny Yoro soon conceded a dangerous free-kick as he brought down Yasin Ayari on the break, presenting Brighton with a set-piece that ended with Carlos Baleba shooting well wide.
Those gaps remained, as Georginio Rutter proved when he found Welbeck in space and the forward’s shot was well parried by United’s keeper Senne Lammens.
But they were rare moments of panic for the Reds, who had started in style when Mbeumo found Bruno Fernandes after just 30 seconds and the United skipper, unmarked, headed disappointingly wide from a dozen yards.
Soon after, Mbeuno’s perceptive pass found fellow newcomer Cunha whose touch presented him with a difficult shot which he placed into the side-netting.
After their goals, United might have claimed a third just before half-time, with new number nine Benjamin Sesko missing a promising chance while Fernandes opened the second half with a close-range shot that was well blocked by Bart Verbruggen.
And, still, Brighton’s attempts to plays the ball out of defence bordered on the embarrassing; Ayari adding his name to the list of shame after 55 minutes, passing the ball directly to Sesko who, fortunately for the visitors, struck his shot straight at the keeper.
If Sesko had been guilty of wasting a couple of glorious chances, his next involvement more than made up for it, as he gathered a loose ball after more solid defending from Shaw, and found Mbeumo just inside the area with the United forward finishing clinically, left-footed, from 15 yards.
Mbeumo was denied by another Verburggen stop at the foot of his post, a save which was soon followed by United substitute Patrick Dorgu pulling down Yankuba Minteh as he raced through on goal and surviving an anxious wait to discover he only had a yellow, not red, card as punishment.
Conceding that 74th minute free-kick still proved costly, however, as Welbeck deposited a pinpoint 25-yard effort into the top corner of the United net, ensuring a suitably anxious few minutes for the hosts.
Lammens 7; Yoro 5, de Ligt 6, Shaw 7 (Heaven 65, 6); Diallo 5, Casemiro 8 (Mainoo 70. 5), Fernandes 7, Dalot 5 (Dorgu 70, 5); Mbeumo 9, Cunha 8 (Ugarte 81) - Sesko 5 (Zirkzee 82). Bayindir, Mazraoui, Mount, Malacia.
Verbruggen 7; Wieffer 5 (Tzimas 87), van Hecke 5, Dunk 5, De Cuyper 5 (Watson 59, 5); Baleba 5 (Milner 59, 5), Ayari 5 (Gomez 60 5); Kadioglu 5, Rutter 6 (Kostoulas 79), Minteh 6; Welbeck 8. Steele, Tzimas, Boscagli, Coppola, Oriola.
A Taylor 5 Ends
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