Brentford ruthlessly tore through a woeful Manchester United with an emphatic 4-0 victory that means there are already early alarm bells ringing for new Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag.
The Bees produced a high-energy, physical performance that completely overwhelmed the visitors, who fell behind on 10 minutes when Josh Dasilva’s tame shot somehow squirmed through David de Gea.
The United keeper then played an awful pass to former Brentford midfielder, Christian Eriksen, allowing Mathias Jensen to nip in and double the home side’s lead on 18 minutes.
It continued to get worse for United when Ben Mee bundled in a third as the Bees’ superior height at set pieces paid dividends, before a rapid counter-attack saw Bryan Mbeumo race clear and rifle in a fourth inside 35 minutes.
Ten Hag made a triple change at the interval to try and add more physicality to his side and there was a slight improvement, although the damage had clearly been done and they could not reduce the arrears despite creating half chances for Cristiano Ronaldo and Eriksen.
The result leaves United rock bottom and means they start a season with back-to-back defeats for the first time since 1992. Indeed, the Red Devils have now lost four league matches in a row for the first time since 1979 and are also on a seven-match losing streak on the road that is their worst run since 1936.
Ten Hag will now need to lift his troops ahead of a crunch home clash with rivals Liverpool a week on Monday. Meanwhile, third-placed Brentford visit Fulham next Saturday.