After three painful 1-1 draws, Manchester United beat Brighton 2-0 at Old Trafford and also kept a much-needed clean sheet.
Both Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo played well after being heavily criticised for their lacklustre performances over the past few weeks.
Tribuna.com is here with a breakdown of the result to analyse what we could have done better.
Tactics
Ralf Rangnick set up the team in a 4-2-3-1 formation and here's what the starting XI looked like:
For the majority of the first half, Brighton looked like the better team and it was no surprise that the score was tied 0-0 at half-time.
The Red Devils lost balls in dangerous areas and we hardly looked like a pressing side in the first 20 minutes.
United were dispossessed 7 times compared to Brighton's 5 before the break. The visitors also had 8 shots on target while we could only manage 3. That's not all, Brighton also enjoyed greater possession.
After the break, United made an interesting tactical change - our wingers Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho switched sides and appeared to go at the Brighton centre-backs.
While attempting to tackle Elanga, Lewis Dunk brought him on down and was shown a controversial red card. Despite giving him a yellow at first, a VAR re-check showed red.
From then on, the game took a pleasant turn for the home side. Although the game ended 2-0, it could have easily been 3-0 or 4-0 based on the number of chances we created.
United had 60% of possession and had 16 shots compared to the Seagulls' 2 in the second half.
By the end of the game, United had better attempts on goal and tormented Brighton's defence from the middle.
Tactics score - 6.5/10
Defence
The fact that we've kept a clean sheet for the first time in February is worth celebrating.
David De Gea was impressive once again, making a series of saves to keep out Brighton's attempts. In the first half particularly, the Spaniard was called to action more than once.
Meanwhile, Maguire had a much better game as he stayed calm and shut down attacks alongside Victor Lindelof, who also put up a reliable shift.
Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw did enough to contain Brighton's wide players, who were clearly instructed to pressurise our full-backs.
Graham Potters' tactics almost paid off as the duo made 168 combined touches of the ball - accounting for 25% of all Brighton touches!
Here's how the Seagulls chose to attack:
As one can see, most of their attacks came through crosses from the left or right side as opposed to the middle.
Brighton still created some moments of trouble during the second half after Dunk was sent off.
Ultimately, their efforts led to no impact as United kept a hard-fought clean sheet to bag three important points.
Defence score: 7/10
Finishing
While the defence looked better than recent weeks, the finishing still left a lot to be desired.
We created more chances, thanks to some brilliant moments from Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes. The game should have been won 3-0 or 4-0, as stated earlier, but credit goes to Cristiano for breaking his goal drought to score our first goal.
Arguably, that was the moment that turned the scales in United's favour. Ronaldo made no mistake after getting the ball from Yves Bissouma in midfield and surging past his opponents to fire into the back of the net.
United created many chances after that but unfortunately, we couldn't convert them into goals.
Nevertheless, it's worth praising Bruno for scoring a goal for the first time after his brace in the 2-2 draw with Aston Villa last month.
Finishing score - 5/10
Team Spirit
After three back-to-back 1-1 draws - which includes the disappointing FA Cup exit - it was great to see United return to winning ways.
The first half was nothing to celebrate as the Red Devils struggled to dominate Brighton at home.
Even after being reduced to 10 men, the visitors showed no signs of shutting down. In contrast, United looked sloppy at times despite having so many big names in the starting XI.
Fortunately, the second half tells a different story and a win is a win - no matter the circumstances.
We need to be more aggressive and work on playing a full 90 minutes like the second half vs Brighton.
Team Spirit score - 5/10
