Erik ten Hag has admitted Manchester United saw a completely different player out of one star who has struggled this season against Chelsea.
It turned out to be a catastrophic night for Manchester United at Stamford Bridge as they somehow conspired to lose 4-3 despite leading 3-2 in the 99th minute.
An Alejandro Garnacho brace and Bruno Fernandes header had seen United fight from two down to take the lead but Cole Palmer completed a last-gasp hat-trick to turn the game around again.
It’s hard to think positively about such a heartbreaking defeat but there were some to take from the match.
Though helped by another team with no sense of tactical defending, Erik ten Hag’s side did play nice, confident passing football in the end-to-end thriller.
One player in particular had his best night in a United shirt in years if not ever.
Erik ten Hag praises one player’s performance in the Chelsea victory
Though Garnacho grabbed the headlines with his goals, it was Antony who was the star of the show.
The Brazilian winger was a surprise inclusion in the starting XI in place of Marcus Rashford but took his chance in his first league start in 2024.
Antony was involved in all three goals and set up the third with a ridiculous outside-of-the-boot cross.
Ten Hag admits Antony hasn’t been showing his quality enough but knows he is capable of such great performances.
The Dutchman told United’s in-house media when asked if it was his best game for United: “Yeah.
“I know he is capable of it. I’ve seen it so often when I was manager of Ajax but we haven’t seen this…
“Maybe in the start, we have seen glimpses in the first three games when he scored three goals.
“But after that, incidentally, against Barcelona last season where he scored the winning goal.
“But he is capable of it and yesterday I saw the Antony I want to see.”
Can Antony keep it up?
The big question, the £81m question, now is can Antony build on that momentum and keep his performance levels high?
It’s hard to be confident given he was up against Mauricio Pochettino’s poorly set-up side and a struggling left-back in Marc Cucurella.
He’s earned the chance to show he can, though, and will surely be in the starting XI to face Liverpool on Sunday.
That will be a much harder test against Andy Robertson and Jurgen Klopp’s well-drilled team.
Only time will tell if Antony can turn his United career around.