A game that started so pleasantly for Manchester United ended in raw frustration as they failed to break down 10-man Southampton. They are not in crisis but the reality is they have not tasted victory since the opening day of the season. A thumping strike by Daniel James gave United an early lead but a controlled performance turned wayward and Jannik Vestergaard, the 6ft 6in Southampton defender, seized on United’s vulnerability to head in his first goal for the club. By the end Southampton, who had Kevin Danso sent off, were clinging on. A lively game turned into target practice for Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side, with Mason Greenwood, Jesse Lingard and Ashley Young all taking aim from distance, while a diving header by the Saints defender Maya Yoshida prevented danger from escalating.
James’s opener was sweet. United shifted the ball from right to left, with Andreas Pereira helping the ball on to Scott McTominay, who spread the ball across to James. Cédric Soares’s decision to allow him to cut inside proved fatal, with James jinking on to his fearsome right foot and dispatching an unstoppable piercing effort into the roof of the Southampton goal. Solskjær clenched his fists in celebration, embracing his coaches Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick as every United player except Victor Lindelöf headed to the corner flag, where James had wheeled away towards, to mob a man in form. The 21-year-old could have doubled his and United’s tally two minutes later after a neat give-and-go with Juan Mata, who was influential on his first start of the season, but this time Oriol Romeu made life difficult.
Solskjær acknowledged United are light on numbers going forward with Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sánchez departing in the past week, increasing the onus on Marcus Rashford to deliver. The England striker’s buildup play was clever, helping James pop off another shot on the edge of the box, but he should have also finished the afternoon on the score-sheet yet made a pig’s ear of a simple header. James had turned provider, dinking a cross into the front post after recycling possession but Rashford got it all wrong. Rashford was relentless, his work-rate admirable, but after easily eluding Vestergaard he failed to beat Angus Gunn, the Southampton goalkeeper.
United were without Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial owing to hamstring and thigh injuries respectively but Mata, one of three faces to come into the side here, seemed to thrive on the responsibility of keeping the visitors ticking over for an hour. United had kept Southampton at arm’s length, with Che Adams skewing wide after being played in by Sofiane Boufal. But then Danso, who was again fielded at left-back by Ralph Hasenhüttl, recycled possession following David de Gea’s first notable contribution, an instinctive save to punch clear a Danny Ings header from a James Ward-Prowse corner. Solskjær, hunched in the away dugout, could not hide his disdain at the manner of the equaliser. Danso picked the ball up and plonked it towards the back post, where Vestergaard towered above Lindelöf to power home.
Suddenly Southampton were in the mood and Boufal – the playmaker afforded a second chance and reinvigorated under Hasenhüttl – bounced off Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Paul Pogba down the left before standing up a cross in search of Ings, who was lurking at the far post. Ashley Young intervened but the visitors had lost their way, with Nemanja Matić blazing harmlessly over with his first touch. Southampton displayed a renewed optimism but it got the better of them when Danso, who had already been booked, was overzealous in the challenge on McTominay, with his reckless tackle giving the referee Mike Dean little choice but to show a red card.
Hasenhüttl replaced Ings with the centre-back Yoshida, while Solskjær cajoled his players and introduced Lingard and the 17-year-old Greenwood in search of a rediscovering their spark. James flashed an inviting ball across the six-yard box with the outside of his boot with five minutes to play and, moments later, Lingard fell to the floor under the challenge of Stuart Armstrong, only for Dean to wave away penalty appeals. Then came the final onslaught, but Southampton held out for a point.
