Cristiano Ronaldo broke his goalless streak by scoring minutes into the second half of Manchester United’s 2-0 Premier League win over Brighton and Hove Albion. Lewis Dunk saw red, and Bruno Fernandes sealed the win in stoppage time.
As has often been the case this season, United had to rely on David De Gea’s heroics to keep them in the game. The league’s player of the month for February made a couple of superb stops to deny Jakub Moder from putting the Seagulls ahead, while his counterpart and countryman Robert Sanchez did the same at the other end to Jadon Sancho.
Manchester United took the lead minutes after the interval. In the 51st minute, Scott McTominay robbed Yves Bissouma of the ball deep inside the Brighton half. Ronaldo collected the loose ball, skipped past challenges, and smashed it into the corner of Sanchez’s net to put the Red Devils in front.
Seconds after the restart, things got worse for the Seagulls; Anthony Elanga took the ball away from Lewis Dunk before being fouled by the defender, who saw red on account of being the last man to prevent Elanga a clear run at the goal.
Despite being a man down, Brighton kept the deficit down to one, courtesy of Sanchez – the Spaniard saved from Ronaldo and Bruno to give his side a fighting chance. A chance that they nearly took when Moder rattled the crossbar from distance.
However, as they kept piling men forward in search of the equalizer, the Seagulls left a sea of space in behind for Manchester United to attack. In the seventh minute of stoppage time, a quickly-taken free-kick from Paul Pogba sent Fernandes through on goal, who, despite having Ronaldo in support, decided to go alone and put the game to bed.
With this win, the Red Devils climbed to fourth in the standings, two points ahead of fifth-placed West Ham United and four ahead of sixth-placed Arsenal – although the Gunners do have three games in hand.
2021/22 Premier League: top 6
| # | Team | Matches played | Goal difference | Points |
| 1 | Manchester City | 25 | +47 | 63 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 24 | +42 | 54 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 24 | +30 | 47 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 25 | +8 | 43 |
| 5 | West Ham United | 25 | +11 | 41 |
| 6 | Arsenal | 22 | +9 | 39 |
