Manchester United suffer humiliating 1-3 defeat to West Ham

Manchester United's Luke Shaw (left) and Chris Smalling react after losing to West Ham during their EPL match on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Manchester City took advantage of Liverpool's late kick-off at Chelsea on Saturday to move top of the Premier League as Manchester United slumped to a third defeat in seven league games, 3-1 at West Ham.

United now trail their city rivals by nine points in 10th and could trail Liverpool by 11 should Jurgen Klopp's men continue their 100 per cent record at Stamford Bridge. City showed the gulf in class between both sides of Manchester as Brighton, who beat United earlier this season, were comfortably seen off at the Etihad 2-0 thanks to goals either side of half-time from Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero.

Jose Mourinho

Trouble for United
United's worst league start in 29 years means they are also five points adrift of Tottenham and Arsenal in the race for a place in the top four as they were 2-0 victors over Huddersfield and Watford respectively.

Defeat at the London Stadium compounded a miserable week for United manager Jose Mourinho having also been dumped out of the League Cup by Derby on penalties and
held at home by Wolves last weekend.

Mourinho's switch to a three-man defence backfired as Felipe Anderson and Victor Lindelof's own goal gave West Ham 2-0 half-time lead. "We needed a good start and we didn't have that good start. After the result on Tuesday, the team obviously needs positive things, positive feelings and to start losing after five minutes is not that positive start that you need," said Mourinho.

Focus on Pogba
Paul Pogba was also under the spotlight after being stripped of the vice-captaincy by Mourinho in midweek and a frosty training ground exchange between the pair on Wednesday.

However, the French World Cup winner failed to make an impact before he was substituted 20 minutes from time. Marcus Rashford came off the bench to briefly give United hope by pulling a goal back, but just three minutes later Marko Arnautovic exposed more poor United defending to seal West Ham's first home league win of the season.

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