“Can we play you every week,” sang the delirious Brighton fans, whose team moved Manchester United to near crisis territory with this breeze of a victory.
Roberto De Zerbi’s XI cost a cool £17m (he made six changes from the 3-1 win against Newcastle), Erik ten Hag’s an eye-watering £347m. Yet this was United’s third defeat from five outings – greeted with jeers by the home support – and a second on the bounce. They have six points from a possible 15 and if they lose at Burnley next Saturday, United are engulfed in a plight not in the early season script.
Brighton, rightly, ended the game cock-a-hoop. Danny Welbeck, Pascal Gross and João Pedro scored for the visitors who were threatened only sporadically apart from the opening 15 minutes.
At 2-0 down on the hour, Ten Hag acted, introducing Hannibal Mejbri and Anthony Martial for Casemiro and Rasmus Højlund. The latter move was greeted with boos for the manager – a sign of the times – whose desperation was marked by Mejbri having not featured for two seasons.
On 71 minutes it got worse: one of De Zerbi’s changes was João Pedro and, as with Brighton’s previous goals, the forward was left unmarked and able to blaze past André Onana, who should have saved.
This prompted some fans to depart but Mejbri, perhaps disgusted at his colleagues’ capitulation, strode forward and powered a piledriver past Jason Steele. Yet this was United’s brightest moment on an afternoon that started bathed in optimism.
The hope had been that two torrid weeks would be ended by the sight of Højlund lining up for his home and full debut. Like all fans, United’s support enjoy a particular frisson at the sight of a new centre-forward. Especially one who is 20 years old, fast, strong, tall and is the symbol of a supposed new era in which on-field fortunes will make recent off-field affairs fade.
Not this afternoon, though Højlund displayed a buccaneering zest shown by one raid that saw him marginally miss bulging the back of Steele’s net from Marcus Rashford’s cross.
Cue the Dane pounding a palm into the turf and Brighton were warned. Rashford, operating as the second striker in a novel 4-3-1-2 formation, took inspiration. At this stage, he was a fleet-footed threat that bedevilled a Brighton back four led by the towering Lewis Dunk, who had to cope with Højlund stampeding at him each time he tried to build an attack.
A win was required to ease the swirl around the club so Welbeck’s opener was a first blow. The former home favourite steered the ball out right to Simon Adingra and moved into an area where the return pass went past the hapless Victor Lindelöf, who was distracted by Adam Lallana. Welbeck rolled the ball into the net, then celebrated before the Stretford End.
Lindelöf shook his head and United had to collectively do the same to break the grip their visitors placed on them. Brighton flowed across the pitch, moving the ball through their opponents as if executing a training exercise. United held on and thrust back. A Casemiro diagonal pass reached Rashford who sprinted at the back-pedalling rearguard and let fly: the ball ricocheted off Kaoru Mitoma and on to the frame of Steele’s goal.
Close to the break and the VAR was the visitors’ friend. Højlund’s neat swivel-and-strike was correctly chalked off due to Rashford’s cross arriving after the ball went out on the right byline. Close, sure, but Ten Hag’s talk at the interval had to address how United had faded after a promising start.
Rashford’s darting run, a replica of the one that led to Højlund’s ruled-out effort, again ended with no end product as United settled in for a defining half. It became torturous due to another too-simple Brighton goal. Mitoma wandered along the left and found Tariq Lamptey who recycled the ball to Gross: a shimmy made a mug of Lisandro Martínez and Onana was beaten to his right.
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United were missing a swathe of players headed by Jadon Sancho (for disciplinary reasons) and Antony (a leave of absence), plus those with injuries, including Raphaël Varane and Luke Shaw. Yet Brighton did what they did while deploying rising star Evan Ferguson as a replacement only.
The Sancho affair has been the main issue. Ten Hag created this with his openness regarding the forward’s absence from the previous loss at Arsenal. Now has to come a change in what he oversees on the field – and quickly.
