Man United’s unsung hero with 69 touches vs Chelsea is undroppable, Bruno Fernandes agrees

Add as preferred source on Google

Manchester United held out for a much-needed victory against Chelsea at the weekend, with Bruno Fernandes stealing the show again with a red-hot display.

Fernandes opened the scoring with his 100th goal for the club before Casemiro doubled their lead. United then survived a late push from the Blues after Trevoh Chalobah’s header set up a tense finish.

The result helped ease some of the pressure on Ruben Amorim after his side’s mixed start to the season, which also saw them dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Grimsby Town.

It was a much-improved performance from United, admittedly aided by the rash red card shown to Robert Sanchez, and they now have a foundation on which to build.

But despite playing against 10 men for much of the first half, before Casemiro’s dismissal evened up the two teams, Man United were forced to dig in for large parts, and one defender stood up to be counted.

• READ MORE: The baffling £180 purchase that helped Sir Alex Ferguson win the Champions League at Man United

Matthijs de Ligt was superb for Man United against Chelsea

Matthijs de Ligt joined United from Bayern Munich for £38million last summer, and the deal looks more of a bargain with every passing week.

The towering 26-year-old was commanding against Chelsea and didn’t put a foot wrong, even after being shunted into a more unnatural right-sided centre-back role.

Amorim tasks his wing-backs with bombing forward and stretching the pitch, and that has been known to expose the wide centre-backs. De Ligt, however, created effective overloads, linked up with Bryan Mbeumo and scampered back when needed, defying his slightly sluggish turn of pace.

United often reshuffle their three central defenders, with Leny Yoro surprisingly dropped at Old Trafford, but De Ligt has been ever-present, playing 90 minutes in all five Premier League matches so far.

He is rightly one of the first names on Amorim’s team sheet, bringing a much-needed calmness and steel to a team known to be too easily buffeted by the winds of chaos during games.

It is no wonder, then, that Bruno Fernandes was blown away by his outing on Saturday.

• READ MORE: He saw Tottenham and Man United moves collapse – now he could win the Ballon d’Or

Bruno Fernandes hails Matthijs de Ligt’s performance

De Ligt took to Instagram to celebrate United’s hard-fought three points, posting photos of himself in action alongside the caption: “Big fight, big win.”

Fernandes then replied, leaving a comment which simply read, “Class.”

It was a short but sweet message from the United captain, who can breathe a little easier during matches knowing De Ligt is behind him, ready to sweep up and get his team rolling again.

While it is still early days in the Red Devils’ bid to stabilise themselves under Amorim, he would be foolish to move the Dutchman away from his new role.

As the old idiom goes, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.