It has been a rotten day at the office for Manchester United.
The appointment of Erik ten Hag this summer was supposed to herald a new era for the club but Saturday night saw them dismantled by Brentford - their second straight league loss. The Bees were well worth their 4-0 win over the Red Devils as they inflicted a second straight defeat on the Dutchman.
It leaves United rock-bottom of the top flight ahead of a daunting match against arch-rivals Liverpool next time out. The first three goals at the Gtech Community Stadium all stemmed from errors or just general poor defending on the part of the visitors.
After Josh Dasilva's opener slipped through David de Gea's hands, Mathias Jensen pounced on a dawdling Christian Eriksen and slotted home the second.
Ben Mee then nodded in a third after easily winning an aerial duel against Lisandro Martinez. Although Bryan Mbeumo's fourth was a superb counter-attacking move, former United defender-turned-pundit Gary Neville was seething at the errors that led to the first three.
Martinez has come in for criticism for his lack of height. The Argentine is five-foot nine - a relatively small height compared to most other centre-halves.
He was hooked at half-time against the Bees, along with Fred and Luke Shaw. Neville, on commentary for Sky Sports , compared Martinez's treatment to that of one of his former teammates.
He said: "He's had his Patrice Evra moment. He’s watching the second half with Fred who’s been taken off as well and hopefully learned a lot."
Neville was referencing the incident of Evra's debut, against Manchester City back in January 2006. The French full-back went on to have a successful career at Old Trafford winning five Premier League titles in eight years at the club. But his bow saw him removed by Sir Alex Ferguson at half-time, with City winning 2-0. They would end up winning 3-1 and it proved a baptism of fire for Evra.
Speaking about the incident to the Guardian, Evra said of his nightmare maiden match: "My first introduction to the real Sir Alex was my debut against Manchester City. At half-time he gave the hairdryer for one minute to every player. It was a long 15 minutes. At the end he says to me in five seconds: 'Patrice, sit down. You will learn how to play in England.'
"That night my agent said: 'We made the biggest mistake coming here. I'm sorry.' I was upset but I was burning."
Whilst the result at Brentford was a disaster for United, it was arguably one of the best wins in the Bees' history.
Striker Ivan Toney, who laid on two of the four goals, said: "The hard work and togetherness today showed what we're about. We thoroughly deserved the three points. It was just hard work. We knew the high press would affect them. It was clear to see that if you work hard, you get the result.
"We know they have great talent in there and have some players who can change the game. When you work like we did today and run all over them, you get a result like we did."
