Man Utd have lowest points total in 31 years

Manchester United have made their worst start to a Premier League season for 31 years.

The Red Devils slipped up at home to Aston Villa on Sunday, falling behind after Jack Grealish’s early opener before a Tom Heaton own goal from Marcus Rashford’s header levelled matters.

Victor Lindelof’s strike put Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team in charge, but Tyrone Mings was on hand to pull the visitors level once again, seeing United held to a draw for the sixth time in the Premier League this season.

The Old Trafford outfit have won just two of their last nine games in the English top-flight and now sit in ninth place, 22 points behind leaders Liverpool.

United have collected just 18 points from their first 14 games in the league – their lowest tally at this stage since the 1988-89 campaign. 

That year, United finished 11th in the First Division and 25 points behind champions Arsenal, who finished level on points with Liverpool but had scored more goals.

United have struggled to find any consistency in defence, too, having conceded at least one goal in their last nine league matches.

Despite keeping three straight clean sheets in February, United have managed to shut their opponents out on only two occasions in the 25 league matches they have played since then.

“As a team we are improving but we want to improve a lot more,” centre-back Harry Maguire said after the game. “To not win games at home is disappointing. We huffed and puffed but we need to do better and Wednesday [home to Spurs] gives us a great opportunity to put that right.

“We were poor after their first goal. It knocked us and we were edgy and nervous. To concede straight away after going in front its disappointing.

“We dominated for large parts of the second half.”

While the result is a disappointing one for United, it was a good one for Villa, who avoided defeat against one of the traditional top six for the first time since November 2015.