Tyrell Malacia set a target of 20 appearances in his first Manchester United season. His start against Aston Villa was his 36th.
The 23-year-old was elected as United's mixed zone representative at Old Trafford on Sunday, a logical choice after what was Malacia's most accomplished performance since his purple patch back in late August and early September.
United's defeat of Villa was their 15th clean sheet in the Premier League this term and Villa failed to score for the first time under Unai Emery.
Malacia's sliding tackles on John McGinn and Ashley Young in the first half generated rousing roars of approval from the United matchgoers. Also read: Henderson setback could affect United future Malacia musters two words when prompted to discuss United's clean-sheet record but, thankfully, he is not as disengaged an interviewee as Emma Raducanu in Madrid last week. "I think from now until the last game of the season it's important points so we have to win every game now," Malacia says. "It's not good that we dropped points [at Tottenham] but today we played good and important points. "Yeah, [the atmosphere in the dressing room] was good, but we have to focus now on Brighton.
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