Donny van de Beek had a game to forget in a rare start for Manchester United as Unai Emery enjoyed a dream start to life in the Aston Villa hot seat with a 3-1 victory.
It was Man United's first defeat at Villa Park since 1995 as Leon Bailey struck and Lucas Digne scored a delightful free-kick within the opening 11 minutes. The Red Devils saw their deficit halved when Jacob Ramsey deflected a Luke Shaw strike past Emiliano Martinez. But Ramsey atoned for his error four minutes after the break with a fine effort.
The defeat sees Man United remain in fifth, three points behind Tottenham in the Champions League spots. Villa, meanwhile, move three points away from the drop zone and up to 13th.
United boss Erik ten Hag was hard on his players' performance following the match. He said: "Collectively it was a bad performance. When we are out our best, we start the game on the front foot and ready to play. We were not and we did not deserve any more than we got.
"We didn't follow the rules in defending and we lost our battles. If the players had done their job with 100 per cent desire and passion then we would have won this game.
"I have been in football a long time and players are not robots. Sometimes this is the way it is, it's psychological but it's not acceptable. We have to be ready for every game and not give it away so easily.
"It was stupid to try to cross the ball in the way we did, too quickly and from too far out, with too much force. We have to cross at the right moment. In the second half, we were too quick to cross."
Here's how our man Andy Dunn rated the performance of the Man United and Aston Villa teams in Sunday's clash.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1):
De Gea 6; Dalot 7, Lindelof 6, Martinez 6, Shaw 5 (Malacia 66, 6); Casemiro 6, Eriksen 7; Rashford 6, Van de Beek 4 (Martial 66, 6), Garnacho 5 (Elanga 66,6); Ronaldo 6. Subs: Dubravka (gk), Maguire, Fred, Pellistri, McTominay, Shoretire.
ASTON VILLA (4-2-3-1):
Martinez 6; Cash 6, Konsa 7, Mings 7, Digne 7 (Young 79); Dendoncker 7 (Sanson 90), Luiz 6; Bailey 7 (McGinn 70, 6), RAMSEY 9, Buendia 6 (Ings 79); Watkins 7 (Kamara 79). Subs: Olsen (gk), Chambers, Augustinsson, Bednarek.
---
REFEREE: Anthony Taylor
MAN OF THE MATCH: Jacob Ramsey - assist, own goal, goal, a full house.
WORST PERFORMER: Donny van de Beek - rare start, pretty anonymous.
MATCH RATING: 3
