Stats show United's increasing resilience on the road

It was the fourth away game in a row in which we’ve fallen behind but recovered to take at least a point, a run which tracks back to the start of January.

Matheus Cunha’s leveller ensured the spoils were shared at Leeds United, in our first outing of the year, before the 2-2 draw at Burnley, where the Clarets took the lead and then hit back late after Sesko’s second-half double.

Arsenal scored the opener at the Emirates Stadium last month, but we became the first side to claim three points there in 2025/26, and then the Hammers were denied in the sixth minute of stoppage time on Tuesday.

That’s six points won from losing positions already in 2026, and 11 across the whole Premier League season, when you take into account the draws at Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur, plus the win at Crystal Palace.

United, who would sit 12th in the table without those points, have shown resilience on the road throughout the campaign, being in a losing position on 10 occasions but only actually tasting defeat three times.

Aston Villa are the only side to have a better record away from home, with Unai Emery’s side claiming 15 points from behind, from successes at Spurs, Leeds, Brighton, West Ham and Chelsea.

The league average is 4.6 and there are some noticeable strugglers when it comes to this metric, as Newcastle United have failed to pick up a point in any of the away games they’ve trailed in, while Liverpool only have the one.

Manchester City were joint-bottom of the rankings until Sunday, when they scored twice in the closing stages to turn it around at Anfield and reignite their title bid.

The Reds’ ability to overcome adversity outside Old Trafford is not only impressive when compared to other teams, but also our previous seasons.

A clear outlier can be found in the 2020/21 term, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side took an incredible 28 points from away games in which they were behind – but for the most part, there were no fans in stadiums due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so the traditional home advantage was somewhat eroded.

In the four completed seasons since, United trailed in 43 separate away games and ended up with just 16 points from those encounters, tasting victory on three occasions – West Ham, in September 2021; Everton, in October 2022; and a memorable Manchester derby, as 2024 drew to a close.

In an ideal world, we’d be dominating away games from the off, scoring early and managing them to a conclusion. But the Premier League is arguably as competitive as it’s ever been and, to borrow a boxing analogy, it’s inevitable that you’re going to get knocked to the canvas every now and again.

It’s how you react to these blows that’s important and, with six trips left on the schedule – including a potentially pivotal visit to top-four rivals Chelsea in April – Michael Carrick will only hope that tenacity continues, when required.