What made Youri Tielemans' first Man United strike unique in Premier League era
Manchester United's Youri Tielemans opened his account for the Red Devils at the weekend. Goalscoring The Belgian is not renowned for scoring large numbers of goals, but when he does, they are usually spectacular or important.
Or both, as in the Europa League final last season for Aston Villa against Freiburg. Tielemans scored just ten times for his former club in 134 matches.
In addition, he added only 28 strikes in 195 games for Leicester City, but one of them was the winning goal in the 2021 FA Cup final. Man United goal Tielemans thought he had opened his account last month against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford, but the goal was ruled out.
Nonetheless, he finally got on the scoresheet during his 14th match for the club, having been an ever-present so far this season. The Belgian midfielder pulled his side level at 2-2 just before half time against Aston Villa when Zion Suzuki could not keep out the effort.
His muted celebrations were out of respect for his former team, even though he must have been delighted to open his account in front of the Stretford End in such dramatic circumstances. Youri Tielemans Stat 2026/27 Apps 14 Minutes 988 Starts 13 Goals 1 Assists 3 Goals + assists 4 Passes 681 Pass accuracy % 89.1% Key passes 21 Tackles 20 Interceptions 12 Yellow cards 1 Red cards 0 Theclub's official websitehas also reported on why the goal was special.
The site reports, "it's taken pretty extensive research but, by our reckoning, no United man has ever scored his first Premier League goal for the club against a former side." Teddy Sheringham also almost did in August 1997 against Tottenham Hotspur, but his penalty cannoned off the post and out. Ralph Milne did achieve this in 1988 when he scored his first United goal against his former side Charlton Athletic.
Tommy Boyle also scored in 1929 against his former side Sheffield United, and George Livingston in 1909 against his old team, Manchester City. Alex has a Master's degree from Queen's University Belfast and La Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain.
Having lived in the country since 2011, Alex is The Peoples Person's Spanish football expert and is fluent in both Spanish and Catalan. He dreams of witnessing a United captain triumphantly hoisting the Premier League and Champions League trophy in the air once more.