Manchester United carved out a narrow 1-0 win over Leicester City away from home to continue their recovery from an awful start to the new Premier League season.
Jadon Sancho scored the only goal of the game as Manchester United caught Leicester with a quick counterattack in the 23rd minute. Having slipped to the bottom of the table at one point, United have now claimed three wins on the trot and moved to fifth on the league table.
Erik ten Haq once again left Cristiano Ronaldo and captain Harry Maguire on the bench, sticking to the formula which delivered wins against Southampton and Liverpool.
In a pretty even start neither side managed to create clear-cut openings until Marcus Rashford threaded the ball through to Sancho, who rounded goalkeeper Danny Ward with his first touch and rolled the ball into an empty net with his second to finish the move.
James Maddison went close for Leicester but his freekick was expertly saved by David De Gea as United went into halftime with a narrow lead.
Ten Hag introduced Casemiro after the hour mark to firm up the defence and replaced Sancho with Ronaldo to test the tiring Leicester defence.
The Portuguese looked lively, setting up Rashford for a chance in the 82nd minute and bouncing an overhead kick past Ward’s far post minutes later but ultimately failed to score a goal.
The hosts, meanwhile, had the chance late in the game to equalize through full-back James Justin but his effort went wide of the post as United held on to win.
As United continue to rise, Leicester finds itself languishing at the bottom of the table with just a single point from five games.
With Fofana gone and a misfiring attack, Brendan Rogers has a tough job on his hands.
