The impressive run has ousted Guus Hiddink’s record
Manchester United have been a different beast under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, or at least back to being the same sort of beast Sir Alex Ferguson had made them, but even the legendary Scot cannot claim to have matched the Norwegian’s start in the dugout.
In fact, no Premier League manager can, as Solskjaer broke the Premier League points record for a manager’s opening ten games in charge thanks to Sunday’s 0-0 draw at home to Liverpool.
Still unbeaten in domestic football, his side has scored 26 goals and only conceded six en route to eight wins and two draws. With 26 points in the bag, no other manager can match the United boss in Premier League history.
Guus Hiddink held the previous record by snapping up 25 points when succeeding Luis Felipe Scolari as Chelsea manager in 2008/09, and the Dutchman also holds the record for most games unbeaten after taking over a club. That came in his second spell at Stamford Bridge as he lasted 14 games before a defeat.
With ten games down so far, Solskjaer is joint-fourth on that list and can go level with Frank Clark’s start at Nottingham Forest in 1994 by avoiding defeat at Crystal Palace on Wednesday. He’ll have to hold out against the Eagles, Southampton, Arsenal and Watford to oust Hiddink for that prestigious feat.
However the injury crisis that unfolded live on the Old Trafford pitch during Sunday’s derby may hurt their chances at Selhurst Park, with Solskjaer accepting that Marcus Rashford is among the huge doubts for that game.
“If he plays [on Wednesday], I will be surprised,” he said post-match.
“Rashford was kicked. He did his ankle straight away. We should have taken him off as well but we couldn’t. Normally you would take him off after five minutes. When he went straight through his ankle blew up.
“He wanted to run it off, then Juan [Mata] and Ander [Herrera] came off so we couldn’t take the risk taking him off. Hopefully he has not damaged himself too much.”
