WOLVERHAMPTON: Ruben Amorim said Manchester United had “improved a lot” after they climbed back into the race to qualify for the Champions League as captain Bruno Fernandes scored twice to inspire a 4-1 rout of bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers whose calamitous season gets bleaker by the week.

Amorim’s side recovered from their disappointing draw with lowly West Ham United last week thanks to Fernandes’ double and goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Mason Mount at Molineux.

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde had cancelled out Fernandes’ opener with Wolves’ first goal in six games in all competitions and their first in the top-flight since October 26.

But Mbeumo, Mount and Fernandes netted after the interval to clinch only United’s second win in their last six matches.

United suffered an embarrassing 1-0 home loss to 10-man Everton on November 24 and 10 days later boos greeted the final whistle following a 1-1 draw with West Ham at Old Trafford.

With Amorim growing increasingly tetchy in recent weeks, it was essential that sixth-placed United avoided an embarrassing result against bottom of the table Wolves as they moved to 25 points from 15 games, within one point of the top four.

“I really enjoyed how we played the second half. We had good pace, good quality in the decisions. We finished the game and Wolves is in a difficult moment. It was a good evening,” Amorim said.

“We had some games against teams in better moments and had many shots. We need to improve the quality of the shots. We need to focus not just on scoring but protecting our goal.

“I think we improved a lot. If you compare last season and this season we are creating so much more chances and scoring more goals and having more real situations of danger, so I’m really pleased with that.”

Wolves’ club-record eighth successive league defeat, and 13th of the season, left them marooned on two points and in danger of setting some unwanted Premier League history.

Their tally of points is the joint-lowest after 15 games in the history of England’s top four tiers and they are without a league win since April, losing 16 and drawing three since.

Wolves are now 13 points from the safety zone and the talk is not if they will be able to mount an escape bid but whether they can surpass the lowest-ever Premier League points haul of Derby County who managed only 11 in 2007-08.

Wolves were jeered off and manager Rob Edwards, who replaced Vitor Pereira last month, said he could not blame them.

“There was an anger in the stadium. The lads are trying. The supporters are angry and I get it,” he said. “It’s the toughest league in the world and we came into a team who hadn’t won since April. I wasn’t anticipating a quick turnaround.”

While Wolves are looking down, United are beginning to look up and while there were times in the first half when they looked vulnerable, their second-half display was silky.

They ended up with 27 goals attempts, the most since Amorim took charge, and could have won by a larger margin.

“Attacking with freedom. I thought some of the combinations going forward were crisp, were sharp and that’s what we can do,” said Mount, who dispatched a sweet first-time volley from Fernandes’s chipped ball into the area.

Fernandes had opened the scoring in the 25th minute by scooping a shot past Sam Johnstone in the Wolves goal despite falling over.

United lost some control though and Wolves levelled just before the interval when Bellegarde fired home after David Moller Wolfe’s shot had bounced into his path.

It was the first goal Wolves had scored for 540 minutes but after a brief burst of joy the gloom once again descended in the second half when Diogo Dalot squared for Mbeumo to score after 52 minutes.

After Mount’s goal just past the hour mark, Fernandes bagged his second of the night in the 82nd minute with a typically confident penalty after Yerson Mosquera was adjudged by VAR to have handled a goal-bound shot.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2025