Add in the fact you lost to city rivals who you should be pushing for the championship but aren’t, that you lost your last home game to Liverpool 3-0 and you come close to just how much Manchester United fans are hurting after Tuesday night’s result.
Beaten comprehensively by a side City that look like shoe-ins for the title, thanks to goals from Edin Dzeko and Yaya Toure, United are wounded animals – and Old Trafford just isn’t the fortress it was under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Who’s to blame? Some say it’s Fergie himself. Others blame the board and controversial American owners, the Glazer family. The majority point the finger at one man – David Moyes.
He seems to agree, and has taken the rap for his side’s dramatic decline.
“I am the one who picks the team,” he said. “I take responsibility and always will do. It is disappointing.
“I thought it would be a tough year but I hoped it would be more competitive.”
Moyes has been picked at by critics pretty much since day one, starting his job well into the summer transfer window, a farcical window that was poor by any standards in terms of the players he did eventually sign.
A Twitter campaign #moyesout has been running for months and has nearly 10,000 followers, all keen to see the back of him.
But Tuesday seemed to be a breaking point for fans – one made a beeline for the dugout and hurled abuse at the Scot, while the ‘Chosen One’ banner hanging on the Strettford End had to be guarded by stewards for fear of it being dragged down.
You can understand the frustration. Their team’s form has been erratic and inconsistent and far too many have been to Old Trafford and won – City the latest in a list that includes Newcastle, Tottenham, Everton, West Brom and Liverpool.
Remarkably, United have now lost ten league games this season and find themselves 18 points behind league leaders Chelsea.
Even more worryingly, in clashes against the Premier League’s top five, they’ve won just once, beating Arsenal in November.
One possible silver lining is that they are into the quarter finals of the Champions League, but face Bayern Munich, and if they fail to win that, or indeed the whole tournament, there will likely be no Champions League football next season – United currently nine points behind fourth placed Arsenal.
Remember, this is largely the same side that won the league by 11 points last season, and a squad overhaul will almost definitely happen this summer.
“We never came out of the blocks,” moaned Moyes. “We never got started.”
Elsewhere, his former club Everton enjoyed an impressive win over Newcastle while Arsenal dropped points in their bid to close the gap on league leaders Chelsea, drawing 2-2 with Swansea.
Full results:
Arsenal 2 – 2 Swansea
Man Utd 0 – 3 Man City
Newcastle 0 – 3 Everton
Image via Getty
