Match Review: Manchester United 3-1 Brighton

Manchester United 3-1 Brighton. Under normal circumstances, this would be an unremarkable result. A two-goal defeat away at Old Trafford is a fate which many sides better than the Albion have suffered over the years.

But these aren’t normal circumstances. For United’s part, this is the worst Red Devils team that English football has seen since Sky Sports invented the game in 1992. For Brighton’s part, three wins from the past four games had pushed the Albion into the dizzy heights of eighth in the top flight.

Potterball was working. This was the first time we’d ever faced United while sitting above them in the table. Given that Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Newcastle United and Plucky Little Bournemouth have all defeated Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s men so far this season, the Brighton Class of 2020 looked well placed to become the first Albion side to win away at United – so much so that a majority of voters on a Twitter poll even selected Brighton as the most likely victors.

Well, talk about coming back down to Earth with a bump. All the talk before the game had been about Brighton going fifth in the table with victory. By full time, we were indebted to Maty Ryan for preventing United scoring five, six or even seven.

This was a reminder that although the Albion had picked up nine points out of a possible 12, those victories were only against Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Norwich City – the first of whom were horrifically out of form, the second of whom have won only five away games under their current manager and the third of whom look doomed to relegation before Strictly Come Dancing even reaches Blackpool.

Expectations of what the Albion are capable of seem to have gone through the roof based on defeating three struggling teams. United at Old Trafford, even with their current trials and tribulations, was always likely to be a different proposition.

What didn’t help of course is that Brighton chose this day to give their worst performance of the campaign. Every pass from a player in blue and white seemed to end up going to a player in red. Every tackle a Brighton player put in seemed to result in a yellow card, meaning that before the first half was over Dale Stephens, Lewis Dunk and Martin Montoya couldn’t put in a challenge without risking an early bath.

Warren Aspinall said on BBC Radio Sussex that he could’ve marked Neal Maupay and Aaron Connolly given how little they offered. He probably would’ve been better in possession than Stephens, more creative than the recalled Leandro Trossard and might have even coped better with Daniel James than Dan Burn managed.

Ryan aside, Davy Propper was the only Brighton player who emerged with any credit – and even he got a yellow and scored an own goal. That was for United’s second and it came about after Dunk had given away a free kick which was swung over by Fred.

The Albion captain didn’t exactly cover himself in glory from the resulting set piece either, losing out in the air to Harry Maguire whose downward header caused all kinds of chaos in the box. Eventually, the loose ball was hit over the line by Propper.

As a result of the yellow card he picked up for that foul, Dunk now misses the home meeting with Leicester City in two weeks time through suspension.

Presuming Adam Webster isn’t back from injury by then, that means the prospect of a back line featuring Montoya, Shane Duffy, Dan Burn and either Leon Balogun or Gaetan Bong facing Jamie Vardy, James Maddison and Ayoze Perez. Frightening.

United’s first was also scored by a Brighton player. Stephens this time did the honours as Andreas Pereira’s shot took a massive deflection off the midfielder to completely wrong foot Ryan.

Two goals in two minutes from Brighton’s two central midfielders, both into the wrong net. – perhaps the song needs a rework from “They never give the ball away” to “They always score own goals”.

Not as pleasing a rhyme granted, but factually correct and nobody at WAB Towers has ever claimed to be a lyrical genius in the mould of Ed Sheeran, accept for that time we came up with “Hold me closer, Fran Sandaza” to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer which scandalously never caught on.

Potter changed things at the break, throwing on Solly March and Glenn Murray for Montoya and Connolly and ditching the 4-4-2 which had proven far too easy for United to carve through in favour of 3-4-3.

That gave the Albion a more solid look and when Pascal Gross was thrown on for Leandro Trossard on the hour mark, Potter finally had his most creative player on the pitch.

Gross had been on for only five minutes when he was predictably involved in the Seagulls consolation, whipping over a delicious delivery which Dunk rose highest to head past David De Gea. It was one of only two shots the Seagulls managed on target all afternoon.

We’d been told before the game by Jordan Street from United blog Old Trafford Faithful that if Brighton could get one, United might become nervous.

Dunk’s header could have made for an interesting last 25 minutes and there was certainly a tightening in the tension around Old Trafford.

Unfortunately for the Albion, the hosts’ uneasiness lasted all of 120 seconds before Marcus Rashford scored what was technically their first of the game.

Fred played a delightful through ball that split the defence and despite Duffy’s best efforts to prevent Anthony Martial netting, the ball was eventually played back to Rashord who fired into the top corner. Game over from an Albion point of view.

It wasn’t for United however. They were clearly enjoying giving what Solksjaer described as their best performance of the season and from that point on, the United mission became making it a cricket score rather than a football one.

They would have succeeded too if it weren’t for Ryan. He denied Rashford twice, James and debutant full back Brandon Williams to ensure that things didn’t get too embarrassing from a Brighton point of view.

Because it really could have done. This was a much-needed reality check, the first of many you suspect with even tougher games against Leicester, Liverpool, Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers to come in the next four.

That Manchester United away was seen as one of the easier fixtures in such a devilish run tells you how far they’ve fallen. That we went to Old Trafford thinking victory was a possibility tells you how we’ve far come – but there’s still a long way to go yet. This nightmare showing at the Theatre of Dreams proved that much.