Manchester United came from behind to draw 1-1 with Manchester City on Sunday, a result that stretched their unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions and underlined how quickly their season has turned. Bunny Shaw was not the story here. United were, and Eva Olid's side once again showed they can absorb pressure and still find a way back into a game.
The draw mattered because it came against a City side that had started the Women's Super League season with a 100% record, while United were still trying to recover from a flat opening in which they failed to win any of their first three WSL games. They had been beaten 5-0 by Chelsea and, in defeats by London City Lionesses and Chelsea, managed only two shots on target and less than 40% possession. That made Sunday's point feel less like an isolated result and more like proof that the recovery is real.
Olid said after the derby that it was one of the team's best performances for fight, hard work and pressing. She also said the group had built confidence from day one to the match against Manchester City, even though the process is still ongoing. United sat fourth after seven matches, which gives the turnaround some shape: they are no longer chasing signs of progress, they are already in the top half of the table and staying there on merit.
That improvement has not come from abandoning Olid's ideas. It has come from making them less abrupt. When she arrived in the summer, her style asked for more possession, more attacking intent and more risk, but United initially struggled to adapt. Olid has said the team needed to keep the things it was already doing well and only then add her new style little by little. She has also acknowledged the balance is hard to find, and that players cannot be asked to deliver everything in the first match. The derby suggested they are beginning to meet her halfway.
The unanswered question is no longer whether United can compete with the league's best. They just did. It is how much sharper they can become if the confidence keeps rising without the caution disappearing, because that balance will decide whether this run becomes a brief surge or the shape of the rest of their WSL season.
