The much heralded arrival of Juan Mata failed to inspire
Manchester United as they fell to their eight defeat of the season. Although the
only goal from Robin Van Persie was from Mata’s assist, making it two assist in
two matches for the mercurial Spaniard. The defeat at the Britannia Stadium was
Stoke City’s first win over Manchester United
in 30 years. The last time Stoke
City defeated Manchester
United was in 1984.
David Moyes early reign as the Old Trafford club’s manager
has seen some hitherto impressive record broken. Before now Swansea City
had not beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford before. But that was settled
when the Swans defeated Moyes’ side in the FA Cup early last month when Wilfred
Bony won the match with a textbook header to knock out Man United in the 3rd
round stage.
That feat achieved by Swansea
at Old Trafford has been replicated by Everton, West Brom and Newcastle respectively. As these clubs before
this season have not won at the Theatre of Dreams when added together for almost
a century.
So David Moyes has lost a third of his 24 league matches as
manager. And he has just 40 points after 24 matches when compared to 41 he had
for Everton at the same stage last season.
With fourteen matches left in the league, Manchester United could
find themselves 9 points of fourth place if Liverpool beats West
Brom on Sunday. With matches against Arsenal, the Manchester derby,
Liverpool and Everton to come, every match begins to take an added significance
as the battle for a top four finish hots up.
It an unusual territory for Manchester United to be in, but
the mentality judging from their past antecedent is that they can always pull a magic out of the hat as the battle
becomes fierce.
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