Aston Villa were 4-2 up deep into stoppage time. When Patrick Dorgu’s header dropped in, Emery turned and walked. He did not wait for the VAR check that confirmed the goal, did not wait for the full-time whistle, and did not shake hands with Michael Carrick.

The equaliser came from a Bruno Fernandes corner in the sixth minute of added time. Villa goalkeeper Zion Suzuki came off his line, flapped at the ball and missed it, and Dorgu rose behind him to head into the empty net. A VAR review followed. The goal stood.

Suzuki flaps, Dorgu heads in

United had been dead in the water twice. Alysson tapped in inside the opening minute, and Nicolas Jackson made it 2-0 before the clock had reached four minutes, the earliest 2-0 deficit United have faced in a Premier League match.

A Fernandes penalty on 16 minutes pulled one back after Boubacar Kamara brought down Matheus Cunha, and Youri Tielemans’s low finish from the edge of the box made it 2-2 just before the break.

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Villa then threw it away all over again. John McGinn converted a penalty three minutes into the second half, and five minutes later Leon Goretzka tapped in after a Leny Yoro error to restore the two-goal cushion at 4-2. For the next 40 minutes the game looked settled.

Joshua Zirkzee swept in from close range in the second minute of stoppage time to give United a pulse. Four minutes later came the corner, the flap, the header, and Emery’s walk.

Carrick lives to fight another week

For Carrick, a point felt like a reprieve. Manchester United remain in the relegation zone, 18th in the table with eight points from 10 matches and still without a Premier League win since August.

The United head coach told Tribuna his side had been the better team for long stretches.

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“I thought we were the better team for large parts of the game. We played some very good football and got back into the game. Two goals again put us on the back foot. In the end, we could have even won it,” Carrick said.

The draw followed a midweek comeback win over Roma and lifted some of the pressure that had been building on Carrick after a run that had taken United deep into the bottom three.

Emery still has no win at Old Trafford

For Emery, it was another afternoon in Manchester that ended without three points. The Villa manager is still winless at Old Trafford as a Premier League manager, and this version will sting longer than most: two leads of two goals, both squandered, the last of them inside the final seconds.

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