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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Daniel Murphy

The repeat of history Manchester United will be looking to avoid against Watford

Manchester United are back in Premier League action following the international break on Saturday and there's an unwanted stat that United won't want to repeat when they face Watford.

Caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer became just 'manager' on Thursday when United rewarded him for his fine tenure in charge at Old Trafford so far with a three year contract.

It's undeniable that Solskjaer is deserving of the job as he's performed miracles in his brief time in the hot seat.

He's got United playing thrilling football once more, made fans excited to go to games again, got the very best out of star players, made reaching the top four a possibility and, somehow, reached a Champions League quarter-final in near impossible circumstances.

There was no one else United could have given the job to following the Norwegian's remarkable success so far.

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Yet the announcement of his hiring did come at a peculiar time and there certainly can't be many managers out there who have been given the job off the back of two defeats.

In the two games since the unimaginable triumph in Paris United have lost twice.

They played well and were unfortunate against Arsenal but put in their worst performance under Solskjaer as they crashed out of the FA Cup to Wolves.

Now United face the possibility of losing three competitive games in a row for the first time since September 2016.

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That run of fixtures began with a 2-1 derby defeat to Man City as Zlatan Ibrahimovic's strike wasn't enough to cancel out Kevin de Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho's earlier goals.

It was then followed up by a surprise 1-0 defeat to Feyenoord in the Europa League.

What both runs have in common is that they conclude with a game against Watford.

In 2016 two late goals from Juan Zuniga and Troy Deeney shocked United as the Hornets won 3-1 at Vicarage Road.

United will want to avoid that repeat of history and get the official reign of Solskjaer off to the best possible start when they face Watford on Saturday.

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