Man United 1-3 Brighton: Old Trafford remains Albion playground
You wait over 100 years to win at Old Trafford. And then three come along in a row. Man United 1-3 Brighton saw the Albion continue their dominance over the not-so-mighty United with the best performance of the Fabian Hurzeler Era so far.
Most analysis has focussed on how crap the Red Devils were. And that is true. Ruben Amirom said afterwards that this might be the worst United side ever. Quite an admission from said side’s manager.
Red Devils fans meanwhile will wonder what Sir Jim Ratcliffe will do in response. Sir Jim might be a billionaire who moved his personal fortune to Monaco in 2020 to save an estimated £4 billion in tax.
But every United setback this season has been followed by some sort of astonishing penny-pinching move to try and address the issues facing the club.
Maybe be will start charging OAPs £7 for a cup of tea? Sack Fred the Red? Make children hand over their favourite toy at the turnstiles as a condition of entry, which he can then sell on eBay?
Part of me feels bad that Man United 1-3 Brighton may have inflicted more financial hardship from a bloke worth £29.688 billion in 2023 on everyday United supporters.
Another part of me finds it absolutely hilarious that Little Old Brighton now appear to own Old Trafford and Manchester United in general.
What not many people appear to be talking about is just how good the Albion were in Man United 1-3 Brighton. It is incredible to think this is the same team who have only just ended an eight game winless streak in the Premier League.
Who failed to beat Leicester City and Southampton during that run, despite the Foxes and Saints being in the midst of form which looks to almost certainly guarantee their immediate return to the Championship.
Praise for the Albion should start with Hurzeler. The Youngest Permanent Manager in Premier League History got his tactics and selection spot on.
Amirom remains devoted to the 3-4-3 formation which brought him such success at Sporting Portugal. Despite it being incredibly obvious United do not have the players to make it work.
Hurzeler took full advantage. Yankubu Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma with their directness and willingness to run at opponents caused untold issues to United in wide areas, where they are weakest.
Minteh and Mitoma frequently skipped away from the United wing backs. This drew the centre backs out to deal with them. Creating space in the middle for Danny Welbeck and Joao Pedro to exploit.
Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari were able to go man-for-man with the United central midfield two. When Pedro dropped in from the number 10 role, it gave the Albion more numbers in the middle of the park to dominate that area.
United managed just a single shot on target. That came from their equalising penalty. It is the first time since such stats have been recorded that the Red Devils failed to have an effort on target at home in a Premier League game.
Brighton needed only four minutes to take the lead. Baleba hit a raking 70 yard pass into the inevitable space left in the Albion’s wide-left forward position by United playing wing backs.
Mitoma advanced and played a square pass across goal. Minteh arrived off the opposite flank with no United playing tracking him to easily fire beyond Andre Onana.
United equalised on 21 minutes. A poor pass out from Bart Verbruggen put the Albion in trouble. Baleba took the strange decision to try and jump on the back of Joshua Zirkzee, giving referee Peter Bankes an excuse to point to the spot.
Verbruggen dived left whilst Bruno Fernandes rolled a weak penalty straight down the middle. One shot on target all game and it was one of the least convincing spot kicks you will ever see successfully converted.
Pedro thought he had put Brighton 2-1 ahead early in the second half, only for VAR to controversially get involved. Ayari delivered a free kick which found its way through to the Brazilian, who converted from six yards.
Jan Paul van Hecke though was adjudged to have kicked Diogo Dalot when helping the ball onto Pedro. Dalot went down screaming. Every red shirt on the pitch swarmed around Mr Bankes as Pedro took off celebrating.
That helped convince VAR to take a look and rule no goal. If United put half as much effort into defending as they do looking for any infringement for which goals should be ruled out and pressuring officials into decisions, maybe they would not be in their current mess?
Not that the Albion would be denied the lead for long. Five minutes later and that Minteh and Mitoma link up did for United once more.
Ayari ran through the middle at a home defence content to back off and back off. The Swedish midfielder slipped a pass right to Minteh. He crossed to the far post where Mitoma arrived to convert.
A role reversal from the opener and one which VAR had no chance of overruling. With that, Mitoma became the leading Japanese scorer in Premier League history.
Brighton wrapped up victory on 76 minutes. A patient, passing move toyed with United. Eventually, Jan Paul van Hecke fed the ball to Mitoma replacement Solly March.
March hit a clever first-time pass down the channel for Ayari. Onana made a hash out of gathering Ayari’s cross, spilling it straight to Georginio Rutter.
The in-form Rutter danced around Onana before converting into a now-empty net. Four goals in three away games over the past week for the eminently likeable Frenchman.
Two goal leads have famously been a problem for Brighton this season. But not at Old Trafford. The Albion were streetwise in seeing out the remaining 14 minutes. Helped undoubtedly by having the experience of Lewis Dunk, Joel Veltman and Solly March on the pitch at the end.
Brighton even took the ball into the corner in the closing minutes. A wonderful sight to see compared with Mats Wieffer trying to lead a four-on-one attack right at the death against Wolves at the Amex with Brighton one-ahead. Or Igor Julio dribbling out of defence in identical circumstances at Leicester.
The Albion are learning. Hurzeler is learning. Next lesson to learn – beat a struggling team at home. Three tough away victories in the space of eight days will be made even sweeter if Brighton overcome Everton at the Amex next week.
Then the European dream might really be back alive.