Man United stages another stunning comeback to draw 4-4 with Aston Villa in the Premier League

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United did it again.

Two goals down inside four minutes against Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday and trailing 4-2 going into second-half added time, United rallied to a 4-4 draw on another night of mayhem and drama at Old Trafford.

Whether it has eased the pressure on coach Michael Carrick remains to be seen.

The 20-time English champion still goes into the international break 18th in the standings and in the relegation zone with just one win from 10 games.

But late goals from Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu lifted the mood inside United’s iconic stadium and ended with fans cheering wildly after earlier staging a latest protest against the club’s owners.

After going 2-0 down against Roma inside 17 minutes in the Champions League midweek, United conceded twice in the first four against Villa, with Alysson and Nicolas Jackson on target.

Once again there was a rousing fightback — Bruno Fernandes scoring from the penalty spot and Youri Tielemans leveling before the break.

But Villa soon reasserted its dominance in the second half, with John McGinn coverting a penalty and Leon Goretska adding a fourth.

United looked to be headed for its fifth league defeat until Zirkzee converted inside the box and Dorgu headed in from a corner.

Brighton goes second

High flying Brighton moved up second in the Premier League with a 2-0 win against Brentford.

Liverpool is back to winning ways, beating Crystal Palace 3-1, while Chelsea fell to a surprise 1-0 defeat to relegation-fighting Sunderland.

Brighton’s outstanding start to the campaign continued with a seventh win from 10 games to leave it five points adrift of leader and defending champion Arsenal.

Goals from Diego Gomez and Pascal Gross secured victory at the Amex Stadium for Fabian Hurzeler’s team, which is becoming the surprise story of the season.

Liverpool bounced back from back-to-back losses to Arsenal in the league and Fenerbahce in the Champions League to pick up three points at Palace.

Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak were all on target at Selhurst Park. A stoppage-time penalty from Eddie Nketiah reduced the deficit, but did little to ease the pressure on Palace coach Pierre Sage, with his team bottom of the standings heading into the international break.

Isak now has eight goals in all competitions for Liverpool this season.

Sunderland moved off the foot of the table with victory against Chelsea. Enzo Le Fee’s first-half penalty settled the game at the Stadium of Light and saw Chelsea drop to fifth, with Liverpool climbing to fourth.

Bournemouth is seventh after a 2-1 win at Ipswich. Evanilson scored his seventh goal in eight games to put Bournemouth ahead at Portman Road and a Leif Davis own goal made it 2-0 at the break.

Jack Clarke pulled one back for Ipswich with a second-half penalty.

___

James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

James Robson, The Associated Press