Manchester United's embarrassing 30-year Premier League first

Football fans are in disbelief as Manchester United collapsed to the bottom of the Premier League standings for the first time in 30 years after an embarrasing 4-0 defeat at the hands of Brentford.

Manchester United's PL campaign reached a nadir with the thrashing by Brentford, with former Ajax manager Erik ten Hag's tenure off to an inauspicious start.

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After an opening round loss under Ten Hag's stewardship in his first time out last weekend, two weeks clearly proved not long enough for the new man to work a miracle.

Making matters worse for United was the fact it took Brentford just 35 minutes to carve up what little resistance they offered, scoring all four goals before half time.

The mountain Ten Hag has to climb was rubbed in by overjoyed Brentofrd fans, who chanted 'you’re getting sacked in the morning' as the disaster unfolded.

Three substitutions at half time made Ten Hag's thoughts on the first 45 minutes abundantly clear, as he put the shattering loss purely down to a lack of effort from his charges.

“We all have seen the game. I think Brentford were more hungry and we conceded goals to individual mistakes,” the Dutchman said.

“You can have a good plan but that puts the plan in the bin.”

Not only are United at the bottom of the PL table for the first time in 30 years, the loss to Brentford marked the first time the club has lost seven consecutive away fixtures since 1936.

Football fans simply couldn't believe how far and how quickly the club had fallen since the glory days of the 1990s and 2000s.

It is the first season since the inaugural Premier League campaign in which a United team has lost their opening two fixtures.

At the other end of the table sit rivals Manchester City after the champions crushed promoted Bournemouth 4-0 to maintain their fast start.

Arsenal joined them on six points on Saturday as former City striker Gabriel Jesus struck twice and made two more in a 4-2 win over Leicester City.

Both Manchester games were done-and-dusted before half-time, City being three-up after 37 minutes, United four-down after 35.

It was the first time in the Premier League era the Red Devils were four down at half-time.

Premier League greats in furious standoff over Manchester United

As fans look for who to blame for Manchester United's woeful start to the season, Premier League heavyweights Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp got caught up in a fierce debate on the subject.

Neville pointed the finger at the wealthy Glazer family, the American owners of Manchester United whose stewardship of the team has caused significant criticism.

Redknapp though, said ultimately it was up to the players to be at the level expected of such a historic team in the PL competition - leading to a somewhat heated argument.

“At this moment in time, it’s really desperate. There’s no leadership, there’s no voice, you can’t blame the individual player or the manager, you’ve got to look above and look to the very top,” Neville said.

“This week, they’re going to get peppered those players, the coach, the sporting department, the new CO – they’re all going to get peppered. But there’s a family over there in America who are just literally letting their employees take all the hits for them – and that is unforgivable.

“Joel Glazer has got to get on a plane … get over to Manchester and he’s got to start to divert the issues away from the club and tell everybody what the hell this plan is with the football club. What is he doing?”

While the former Liverpool great was sympathetic to that argument, Redknapp maintain what he'd seen from United against Brentford was simply not up to PL standard.

"You can’t be blaming the owners when the players are putting up performances like that," he countered.

The argument continued, with Redknapp firing up at Neville at one point as he tried to get his point across.

"When you’re a player … We didn’t win a league for 30 years at Liverpool, right – just look at me when I’m talking to you! – we didn’t win a league for 30 years, right?" Redknapp continued.

"I’m not having a go at the players, but they have to take responsibility. When you’re a player, do you think ‘oh I wonder what Joel Glazer’s doing tomorrow?’

"I wouldn’t care less. You have to do better for the team when you play."

With AAP

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