Manchester United’s Cameroonian international Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring for his club against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday – as he usually does.
The 2025 signing – who Tottenham (under his former manager Thomas Frank) also tried to sign from his former club Brentford - is United’s top scorer with 10 so far this season. Not bad for a man who missed over a month of the season playing in Afcon and who is not a natural centre forward.
The French born and raised player, 26, also has a habit of putting United ahead, as he did last month against Manchester City and at Liverpool in October. Mbeumo also grabbed United’s first in a 3-2 win at title-chasing Arsenal two weeks ago.
Plenty of big signings have failed at Old Trafford, but Mbeumo is enjoying a very good first season here, his Premier League proven quality apparent from the start. He is measured when he speaks, like his interim manager Michael Carrick.
“Obviously it was a good feeling to win here with this atmosphere, so it's great,” he said after United won a fourth successive game on Saturday, with Carrick’s 100 per cent record intact after overcoming a side which beat United four times last term.
“It was the coach who wanted to practice this in training,” Mbeumo said of the move that led to the opening goal from a corner which confused Tottenham.
Spurs captain Cristian Romero has been sent off, which helped, but the corner saw Kobbie Mainoo run towards corner-taker Bruno Fernandes. Mainoo then laid the ball into the path of Mbeumo, who rolled calmly past goalkeeper Vicario.
“We did it once, it didn’t work out, but this one was the most important. It was Jonny Evans [a United coach] who was coming to me and the guys and we just try to hit it.”
Carrick emphasised Evans’ contribution: "I wouldn’t say he’s the set-piece coach, Jonny, but he's got an eye on it as well as we all have. Jonny has been doing a lot of work with the players and got the rewards for that, so we’re delighted.
"We go into every game with some ideas and when you see it come off as good as that, and as important as that, it was the first goal and massive. It shows how important they can be.”
The 2-0 win consolidated United’s fourth place and they’re on target to play European football next season, which was always the aim this term. But there’s been a significant bounce under Carrick and his coaches. What has changed?
“I just feel we built on what we were doing from the start because I don't think it was that bad as a lot of people felt,” said Mbeumo. “We just worked together, make the effort together, with a big mentality, and we're never beaten. Even if someone gets past, we come back to support and just try to give it our all. We just try to work as a team to win games.”
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Mbeumo has made an impressive start to his United career and is enjoying life in Manchester. “It's a big club, the fans are a massive community and we feel that when we get onto the pitch,” he said. “We want to make them happy, so we just try to use their energy that they give us and try to give our best.”
Their latest win means United are now only three points behind City in second and third-place Aston Villa - although Pep Guardiola's side are in action against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
“We just want to take it game by game, train as hard as possible and just want to keep working as a team,” Mbeumo added, not a man driven to giving headline-making quotes.
Mbuemo’s link ups with fellow new signing Matheus Cunha are also proving productive.
Carrick switched the pair on Saturday, figuring that Cunha’s pace would be more effective against the fleet-heeled Micky van de Ven. Mbeumo was then able to find more space down he left rather than in the central role where he’s been playing under Carrick. “I think it's a bit of everything, obviously we try to do work in training and we have players with a lot of qualities," he said.