Nothing is ever simple for Erik ten Hag. The Manchester United manager has been at pains to say he has the respect of his squad after Marcus Rashford’s latest misdemeanour and, in fairness, nobody can argue his players are not with him after Kobbie Mainoo snatched victory in the seventh minute of nine added minutes.
Even when it seemed United had thrown it away, Pedro Neto firing in an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time, the visitors would not lay down. Rashford scored five minutes into his return to action after his latest ticking-off and it seemed he would hog the headlines but the drama was only just getting started.
It was a quite simply ridiculous ending to a football match. Wolves had been upping the ante, leading Ten Hag to bring on Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans in an attempt to bubble-wrap the victory, having breezed into a two-goal lead, but then Neto fired in to send Wolves delirious.
Ten Hag must have thought he had it sussed when Rashford and Rasmus Højlund sent United 2-0 up inside 22 minutes but from there they allowed their firm grip to slip. The substitute Scott McTominay headed in to offer a degree of comfort after Pablo Sarabia replied for Wolves from the penalty spot, but then Max Kilman fired in with five minutes to go to make it 3-2.
Ten Hag acknowledged this was probably his strongest starting lineup of the season and a team brimming with World Cup and Champions League winners and a couple of the game’s brightest talents finally seemed to click in the kind of manner one may expect.
Ten Hag insisted it was a matter of case closed when it came to Rashford and his unlicensed gallivanting in Belfast nightspots this time last week but, in reality, all eyes were on how the 26-year-old would fare on his return to the team.
The answer was a resounding one, Rashford tormenting Nélson Semedo, Wolves’ right-wing back. Wolves, Gary O’Neil said, anticipated Rashford would start and so he did, which perhaps explains the pointed pre-match playlist that featured both The Champs’ and Terrorvision’s songs by the name of Tequila.
Within 25 minutes, with United cruising at 2-0, the away supporters stretched across the bottom of the Steve Bull Stand saw the funny side of things, glorifying Rashford’s latest misdemeanour. “Rashford’s on the piss,” they cheered in unison.
In fairness, Rashford, left out of the squad that travelled to Newport for their unconvincing FA Cup victory, was making everything look extremely easy. Then again, Rashford’s natural ability had never really been in question.
It seemed a case of muscle memory as Rashford, first time, swept Højlund’s cute layoff into the top corner. Rashford’s celebrations were relatively muted, the forward striding towards the bank of United supporters before being mobbed by his teammates. The Argentina centre-back Lisandro Martínez, making his first league start since September, grabbed Rashford by the chops, a congratulations of sorts. Ten Hag, in a grey beanie, clenched both fists as Rashford’s unerring right-foot strike flew past José Sá in the Wolves goal. Rashford now has two assists and three goals in his past five league matches.
Rashford was involved in United’s superbly-worked second goal. A punchy move began with Diogo Dalot down the right and culminated with Kilman, the Wolves captain, inadvertently diverting Luke Shaw’s low cross through the legs of Sá, via Højlund.
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Dalot shifted the ball to Alejandro Garnacho, who switched play. Rashford then fed Shaw on the overlap and, with Højlund lurking in the six-yard box, Kilman and Craig Dawson failed to extinguish the danger. For United, all in white, it was a pure goal, a slick and destructive team move, one that would have got the approval of Sir Alex Ferguson, among those present in the directors’ box.
United smelt blood and hunted for a third before half-time. Casemiro headed a devilish Bruno Fernandes free-kick wide and Højlund almost humiliated Sá, hounding down the goalkeeper as he went to clear an undercooked and careless pass by Matt Doherty.
Wolves had overcome Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea here earlier in the season but they were a pale imitation of the team that overwhelmed those sides. Fernandes dropped a shot wide and Højlund and Casemiro both saw goals correctly disallowed for offside before the interval. André Onana, back from Africa Cup of Nations duty with Cameroon, was a spectator in the United goal.
Wolves barely laid a glove on United, whose frailties were exposed by a middling League Two team last weekend, until Kilman connected with Pedro Neto’s free-kick four minutes into the second half, beating André Onana with a fine header. But Martínez, who conceded the free-kick, fancied a redemption story of his own and cleared off the line. Then Dawson went tantalisingly close, his deflected shot skidding off Onana’s head and clear. O’Neil looked on in disbelief. Wolves were at least now asking questions of United. The visitors were nowhere near as comfortable and Garnacho celebrated nicking the ball from Mario Lemina on halfway like a third goal.
Nothing is simple for Ten Hag, though, and a clean sheet did again elude his side. When Neto danced into the box and, after jinking clear of Casemiro, the Brazilian was deemed to have clipped his wings.
The referee, Jarred Gillett, pointed to the spot and, after a three-minute VAR check, his decision stood. Sarabia, the architect of Wolves’ stoppage-time comeback win over Spurs in November, slotted the subsequent penalty down the middle. Wolves’s hopes of anything close to a repeat were dented when McTominay headed in a Fernandes corner but Kilman lashed in with five minutes of play to ensure a grandstand finish.