Written by 
Key events
90 min +2: … but Southampton win a corner down the right. They couldn’t, could they?
90 min +1: Poor Aaron Ramsdale, so close to a first clean sheet in the Premier League looks like crying. There will be five additional minutes.
GOAL! Manchester United 2-1 Southampton (Diallo 90)
It’s that man again! Diallo tiptoes down the right touchline and rolls infield for Eriksen, who wedges a return down the inside-right channel. Diallo extends a leg and whip-cracks a glorious first-time effort into the bottom right. What a finish! What an escape for Manchester United!
89 min: It’s all United in terms of possession now. Saints struggling to string anything together. And then …
87 min: Diallo diddles his way down the right and thinks he’s won a corner but the referee points for a goal kick. Much finger-wagging.
86 min: Old Trafford is bouncing now, for the first time this evening. Diallo the late-scoring hero yet again, but Zirkzee has made an impression since coming on, too. Clapped off ironically the last time he played here, tonight he’s got an assist to his name. It’s a great feelgood comeback story, registering a full 10 on the Bryce Young-o-meter™.
84 min: Both teams respond with a double change, albeit one they were making anyway. Eriksen and Maguire come on for Yoro and Mazraoui. Meanwhile Bednarek and Ugochukwu are replaced by Wood and Onuachu.
GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 Southampton (Diallo 82)
Diallo, fed by Zirkzee, drives down the inside-right channel. He tries to beat Walker-Peters but the ball’s blocked. He gets the break of the ball, though, off his shin. He takes advantage by slotting into the bottom right, Ramsdale with no chance. It had been coming!
80 min: Downes is booked for fouling an in-flight Antony. When the game restarts, Bruno Fernandes is found in space to the right of the six-yard box. He attempts to dink Ramsdale but the keeper spreads himself and blocks. Bree completes the clearance.
78 min: Zirkzee drives down the left. Bree comes in from behind and nicks the ball off him. It’s sailing out for a corner. Ramsdale hooks clear, albeit from a couple of yards behind the line. Weirdly, and preposterously, no corner is awarded. United livid.
77 min: United with the sterile possession. They need more as the clock ticks on. “Man U fans will be hoping Collyer can mine a rich seam of form,” quips Russell Brady. He’s here all week, try the Cornish pasty.
75 min: United have enjoyed 79 percent of possession during the last five minutes. Ruben Amorim still pacing up and down the technical area in the agitated style.
73 min: Mateus Fernandes and Aribo are replaced by Armstrong and Downes.
72 min: Garnacho advances down the left, reaches the byline, and cuts back for Diallo, whose first-time drive is spectacularly blocked by Harwood-Bellis. Saints aren’t quite hanging onto their lead by their fingernails, but United are beginning to dominate territorially for the first time tonight.
71 min: Collyer dinks a cute pass down the inside-right channel to release Diallo, who has options in the middle but blooters a wild cross over everyone’s head and out for a goal kick.
70 min: A couple of runs by Diallo down the right. Full of effort and ambition, but both heading down a dead end.
68 min: It’s finished at Portman Road. FULL TIME: Ipswich Town 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion. A good result for Everton, Wolves, Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton. [MBM hack opts against obvious cheap shot]
66 min: United have at least regained a semblance of control. And they’ve made a couple of half-chances … plus that really big one that Antony somehow spurned. So for the first time in a while, the Old Trafford faithful are in good voice. John Denver on vibes.
64 min: Zirkzee advances dangerously towards the Saints box, and has the opportunity to shoot, but takes one touch too many so when he eventually does, it’s blocked. “If anyone should be replaced it’s Garnacho,” argues Peter Littley. “Hojland seems to take the blame for the failures elsewhere. To be honest apart from Onana you could have replaced any of the other 10.”
63 min: The excellent Dibling can’t continue, and he’s been replaced by Smallbone. “Could Paul Scholes have sounded more flat and lacking energy when he said United were flat and lacking energy?” wonders Ian Sargeant.
62 min: Dibling is down having taken a whack to the ankle. On comes the physio.
61 min: Garnacho runs across the face of the Saints box, left to right, before pearling a drive straight at Ramsdale. This is better from United, which again, isn’t saying a whole lot, but baby steps.
59 min: Garnacho diddles his way past Bree on the left. He rolls across the front of the six-yard box for Antony, who simply can’t miss with the keeper out of position. But instead of staying on his feet and tapping home, he elects to slide in, and the ball squirts straight left. Ramsdale claims, and how on earth did Antony manage to miss that?
58 min: Sulemana has Yoro on toast. He knocks the ball past the defender and leaves him in the dust. He enters the box and United are fortunate the shot that follows isn’t all that: body open, he sidefoots lamely across Onana and wide right.
56 min: Garnacho crosses deep from the left. Diallo’s at the far stick. He’d need Peter Crouch on his shoulders to get his head on that. Goal kick.
55 min: De Ligt heads it half-clear. Mateus Fernandes crosses again. Eventually Bree runs the ball out for a goal kick, and there are a few more boos. Meanwhile at Portman Road, it’s GOAL! Ipswich 0-2 Brighton (Rutter 81) and all three points look to be heading to the south coast.
54 min: Mateus Fernandes flicks the free kick off the wall and out for another corner. He’ll send it in from the left.
53 min: Ugochukwu bombs down the inside-left channel and is upended by Martinez, who goes into the book. Free kick just to the left of the D. Before it can be taken, Ugarte and Hojlund are hooked, with Collyer and Zirkzee sent on in their places.
51 min: Sulemana burns off Yoro yet again down the left. He enters the box and shoots. Blocked by De Ligt. Handball? Nope, according to both referee and VAR. Then Sulemana comes bowling down the same flank again, but can’t find anyone with his low cross. The Old Trafford Pensive-o-meter™ has been cranked up to 11. Does it go one louder to 12?
50 min: Dibling flicks this corner on as well, causing momentary bedlam in the United six-yard box. But the ball’s eventually hacked clear.
49 min: Sulemana has been a menace down the left all evening. Now he shrugs off Diallo with ease, and feeds Walker-Peters on the overlap. Walker-Peters earns a corner. Mateus Fernandes to take.
48 min: Sugawara takes an Arsenalesque time over a throw-in. The Old Trafford give him the aural bird.
47 min: … and it nearly pays dividends immediately. Ugarte sails a pass down the left for Bruno Fernandes, who slips the ball to Antony, just inside the box on the left. Antony shoots. Deflected. Over the bar. Nothing comes of the resulting corner, but that’s better from the hosts, albeit with their first-half standard not high.
46 min: A slightly surprising but interesting substitution there. Bruno Fernandes drops back into midfield.
Southampton get the second half started. It’s United’s turn to kick towards the Stretford End, and they’ve sent on Antony for Mainoo.
Half-time postbag. “Amorim has done an incredible job of lowering expectations to such an extent that draws are celebrated as victories and doing the basics gets praised to the heaven. This scoreline – and performance – really shouldn’t be that much of a shock” – Stephen Carr
“The Saints are in heaven but the devil’s in the details: Why can defenders paid hundreds of thousands a week to play football not learn how to defend a corner? Away! Away! (In more ways than one.)” – Justin Kavanagh
“Watching Rasmus Højlund lumber around the pitch again leads me to believe that he’s not long for Old Trafford. Much like the ineffective Garnacho” – Matthew Lysaght
Select quotes from TNT pundit and United legend Paul Scholes at half-time. “Really flat … lacking energy … where’s the quality … Southampton really should be 2-0 or 3-0 up … Sulemana has given Yoro a torrid time.” He’s more disappointed than angry. Penny for the thoughts of Sky’s Roy Keane.
Meanwhile at Portman Road … GOAL! Ipswich 0-1 Brighton (Mitoma 59). Kaoru Mitoma’s shot isn’t all that, but it’s too good for Christian Walton nevertheless.
HALF TIME: Manchester United 0-1 Southampton
Saints deserve this lead. Medium-volume boos ring around Old Trafford as Ruben Amorim walks off wearing an admirable poker face.
45 min +1: Dibling is booked for clattering an in-flight Ugarte. Then Diallo goes into the book for diving as he goes over easily in the environs of Mateus Fernandes. Much frustration for United.
45 min: Diallo dribbles in from the right and has the opportunity to go over Harwood-Bellis’s outstretched leg. He stays honest, and Saints get away with one there.
44 min: That’s Southampton’s first goal from a corner all season. And they’re nearly 2-0 up in short order, Aribo barging his way down the middle and powering a rising shot straight at Onana, who does his job. Old Trafford stunned. The Saints fans en fete.
GOAL! Manchester United 0-1 Southampton (Ugarte 43 og)
There’s some faffing before the corner is taken. Then more faffing, by the United defence this time. Mateus Fernandes sends the corner from the left to the near post. Dibling eyebrows it on, and the ball pings off the back of Ugarte and into the top left, Onana flapping but unable to stop the ball crossing the line.
41 min: Sulemana fancies it against Yoro. He breezes past his opponent and advances down the left again. Saints begin to probe. Dibling considers shooting from the right. The ball’s shifted to the left, where Aribo wedges a ball into the box down the left for Sulemana, who slips while shooting. The ball breaks off De Ligt and out for a corner. From which …
39 min: United play it long. Bednarek beats a dozing Hojlund to the ball on the penalty spot, and now the volume dial shifts to Irritated Groan.
38 min: The Old Trafford volume dial is set to Pensive again.
36 min: Ugarte sends a long pass down the left for Hojlund, who reaches the edge of the box before being surrounded and forced to turn tail. He knocks back to Bruno Fernandes, who biffs a low shot towards the bottom left. Easy for Ramsdale.
34 min: Not for the first time this evening, Sulemana wriggles clear of Yoro with elegant ease. He advances down the left and sashays infield, before curling a shot intended for the top-right corner high and wide.
33 min: They’re underway at Portman Road again.
32 min: Somewhere, in a parallel universe, it’s 2-2.
30 min: … and now Dibling hoicks over from the edge of the D. Replays of that Onana save from Mateus Fernandes show the Saints midfielder shooting straight at the keeper, but take nothing away from Onana, who made himself as big as possible.