Last minute high-flyer Manchester United came crashing unexpectedly down to hard terra firma after a shock home defeat to bottom-placed Sheffield United at Old Trafford on Wednesday, with this being the latter’s first ever win at Old Trafford since 1973.
A hard slap in the face and a much-needed reality check, it was the Red Devils’ first loss in the Premier League in 15 games, depriving themselves an opportunity to regain top spot from Manchester City as they now lie a point behind the Cityzens and with the latter still having a game in hand.
Kean Bryan, a Man City academy product, stunned United as the Blades surged into the lead in the 23rd minute.
The Red Devils threw whatever they could with their flailing form into the rest of the match and dominated possession, but clearly lacked the impetus in the final third. Their intensity picked up in the second half and skipper Harry Maguire got them back to level terms against his former side, but whatever notions they had of turning the game around were dashed with the sledgehammer blow in the 74th minute when Oliver Burke fired the scorching winner for a deserving Chris Wilder’s side.
United clearly have no one but only themselves to blame following a series of poor defensive choices on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s part and the shoddy performance of the team.
Twitter was deluged with frenzied hyper buzz as livid Man United fans vented their anger at both the manager and the players for their shambolic performance.
The worst performance I’ve seen from a united team in a while — MBCKaylan (@Kaylan_fut) January 27, 2021
@ManUtd this was just another example of poor managerial decision making in team selection. OGS never learns. Same mistake he made at Leipzig. OGS didn’t wanna win this match. He underestimated Blades and thought let’s save our best players for Arsenal — Andy (@andybrianme) January 27, 2021
We’ve played so well of late, it’s just a shame that we always seem to have the chance to drop a stinker of a performance like this every so often… onto the next one and let’s bounce back stronger — Ben (@b_hartshorne) January 27, 2021
haven’t seen us play this worse under ole — Bruno (@MbakweJ) January 27, 2021
Man Utd play start most games soo slow, we were too rigid & not good enough tonight. Not surprising because we have gotten away with dead performances like this. Reality Check needed Disgraceful & Embarrassing — Odogwu (@Daddy_Nomso) January 27, 2021
We are just a charity team, give Sheffield UTD their 2nd win of the season, give Istanbul their first ever UCL win and Arsenal their fist win at OT in about 15 fucking years, just useless. — Isacc♦️™️ (@IsaccUtd) January 27, 2021
We’re so finished man Ole needs to get out. The only players who put effort out there were Bruno and Rashford the rest were spineless especially Pogba. Ole needs the sack immediately if we’re serious about this title — Phil (10-8) #PogbaOut (@PhilUTD_) January 27, 2021
No matter how well we are doing we always have this sort of result in us. Sheffield Utd had lost 16 out of 19 games before tonight. And now we’ve given City a massive advantage. What’s the point in getting our hopes up, because when it really matters, they let us down. Pathetic — ™ (@Prime_Utd) January 27, 2021
At least I can lower my expectations now and just see us as a ‘fight for top 4’ club We’re not winning the league with this defence. 1-3 Palace 1-6 Spurs 0-1 Arsenal 1-2 against 20th place
Sheffied no teams lose 4 homes games and believes they can win the league — . (@BismiIIah_) January 27, 2021
Disappointing, shameful, painful result!!! The game had the relics of our Arsenal, Basaksehir and Leipzig defeats. Painful part about this loss is that we were never up for it. Never showed any sort of urgency to reclaim top spot from the start. Disgraceful performance all round. — Anthony Chukwu (@centanthonyc) January 27, 2021