Premier League 2019-20: 3 key battles that decided Manchester United's 1-1 draw against Wolves
The giant-killers of last season have returned to the Premier League in true giant-killing fashion, leaving only Arsenal and Liverpool with two wins from two games at the end of the second game week.
The first half was all Manchester United, punctuated by a sharp goal from their new No. 9 Anthony Martial. But the second half was the home team the entire way, culminating in a picturesque Ruben Neves goal that punctured United hearts.
If that was not enough entertainment for the night, Rui Patricio dived the right direction to deny Paul Pogba his penalty, and United their three points.
As always, there were a few key individual battles that went a long way in deciding the course of the contest. Here's a look at 3 of them:
#1 Ruben Neves vs Paul Pogba
In the battle of the quarterbacks, there is no doubt who came up trumps. While one scored a crucial goal - we'll get to the beauty part shortly - and earned his side an important point, the other flunked a crucial penalty that would have secured his side two more points.
Other than the penalty though, there was not much that the Frenchman did wrong tonight. In fact, it was him who won the penalty in the first place, showing great strength and poise in the box to force the block from the defender. But the resulting spot kick was a weak one to his left.
Pogba showed great strength in the air as well. His three aerial duels won and passing accuracy of 84% percentage would have been key talking points any other night.
Neves, on the other hand, was every bit the Neves we saw last year in the Premier League and before that in the Championship. He fought for every bit of the ball, not afraid to get his hands dirty when the ball came anywhere near him. He put in two tackles and got a yellow card handed to him; not that it bothered him in the least.
But the goal was where the contest well and truly changed. Considering Neves' penchant for taking shots from outside the box, one could argue that the United defence should have closed him down soon.
However, when your goalkeeper - one of the best in the world - puts in a full stretch dive and still cannot stop the ball from grazing the bottom of the crossbar and going into the net, all you can do is sit back and watch the genius in front of you.