Scott McTominay relieved some of the pressure surrounding Erik Ten Hag as his double earned an improved Manchester United a much-needed 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Ten Hag's gamble in dropping both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial amid reports of dressing-room disharmony had the desired effect for the under-fire manager, with the hosts' quality with and without the ball a world away from Saturday's dismal defeat at Newcastle.

McTominay opened the scoring on the rebound from Harry Maguire's effort (19), but United would have already been ahead had Bruno Fernandes not seen an eighth-minute penalty saved.

United's performance cut through the noise surrounding the club to finally earn a first point - and win - of the season against an opponent in the top half of the Premier League, and lifted them just three points off the top four.

Man Utd manager Erik Ten Hag noted that, "It hasn't felt like a crisis for us. We've kept calm, worked on the process and we know where we have to build and what we have to build on.

"We're going in the right direction, we don't get distracted from criticism around us, we are very critical on ourselves and know we are not quickly satisfied, we want to do better. If we do things badly, we want to put that right and want to keep going in the process.

"The season is long, we have to improve a lot if we want to be successful, but this team is capable of that."