Fernandes leads from the front as United see off Villa for seventh win under Carrick

A seventh win in his ninth game in charge puts the interim tag on Carrick under question again as Casemiro, Cunha and Sesko all hit target

Sun, 15 Mar, 2026 - 16:04

Mike Whalley

Manchester United 3 Aston Villa 1

In Manchester United’s increasingly unpredictable season, the one constant is Bruno Fernandes. Two assists by their inspirational captain provided two goals that helped take his team one step closer to Champions League qualification. Fernandes’ quality continues to be a given. Trying to forecast much else at Old Trafford currently is a fool’s game.

Take Casemiro’s future, for instance. When the Brazilian midfielder looped in an angled header from a Fernandes corner eight minutes into the second half to give United the lead, the Stretford End hailed him with a chant of “one more year”. It seems unlikely. The midfielder turned 34 last month. His contract is up in the summer. United have already announced he will leave when it expires.

But then Michael Carrick is only supposed to be head coach until the end of the season, and yet it cannot be ruled out that he will still be in charge come August. The interim’s record now reads: played nine, won seven.

This was the sort of day when nothing could be taken for granted: Carrick surprisingly started with Benjamin Sesko on the bench, and the striker ended up with a goal anyway. Villa gave midfielder Ross Barkley his first league start in 14 months, and he scored too. The pre-match warm-up was conducted in a torrential downpour; the second half was played out in sunshine.

The odd thing did run as predicted, though: Aston Villa provided further evidence that their Premier League campaign has run out of steam. Outside title contenders at the turn of the year, their squad has been stretched beyond its limits by injuries and loss of form. This was their third successive league defeat, and they have now won just one of their past seven.

At this rate, they may well miss out on Champions League qualification altogether. They might have lost more heavily: Diogo Dalot blazed over United’s best first-half chance, while goalkeeper Emi Martinez saved well from an Amad Diallo header, and from a Bryan Mbeumo shot.

Only briefly did they look as if they might build on Thursday’s Europa League victory in Lille to resuscitate domestic fortunes. Barkley, preferred to Douglas Luiz in a holding midfield role, swept in a Villa equaliser from Lucas Digne’s low diagonal ball 11 minutes after Casemiro’s opener, the goal awarded after a lengthy video assistant referee check as to whether the offside Amadou Onana had obstructed the goalkeeper’s sight line. Tammy Abraham, a substitute for the ineffective Ollie Watkins, had a chance from Leon Bailey’s cutback moments later, only for Dalot to sweep the ball off his toe.

Then Fernandes played an outstanding through ball for Matheus Cunha to run on to and slide United back in front, and that was that, really.

Sesko, whose 6ft 5in height was missed in the first half as a number of United crosses into Villa territory went unconverted, made it 3-1 not with a header, but a deflected shot, capitalising on chaos in the Villa area to turn and score. United look a strong bet for a place in next season’s Champions League – if anyone at Old Trafford dare look that far ahead right now.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Lammens 6; Dalot 6, Yoro 7, Maguire 7, Shaw 7; Casemiro 7 (Ugarte 90), Mainoo 6; Amad 7, Fernandes 8, Cunha 7; Mbeumo 6 (Sesko 75, 7).

Substitutes: Bayindir, Heaven, Malacia, Mazraoui, Mount, T Fletcher, Zirkzee.

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Martinez 7; Bogarde 6, Konsa 6, Mings 6, Digne 6 (Maatsen 82, 6); Barkley 7 (Douglas Luiz 82, 6), Onana 6; Rogers 5, McGinn 6 (Bailey 61, 6), Buendia 6 (Garcia 86); Watkins 5 (Abraham 61, 6).

Substitutes: Bizot, Lindelof, Torres, Elliott.

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Attendance: 73,997