In the second week of January, a merciless Brighton exploited yet another shoddy defensive effort, ending Manchester United’s trophy chase. Welbeck scored Brighton’s second goal to go to the fourth round in front of his former manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, with former teammate Darren Fletcher serving as acting manager at his former club.
For the first time since 1981–82, the 13-time winners have been eliminated from the tournament and the League Cup at the first chance thanks to this FA Cup third-round knockout. United will have played 40 games overall by the end of May, which will be their fewest games played in a full season since 1914–15.
If the Carabao Cup penalty shootout loss at Grimsby in August was terrible, this disappointment was even more worrisome. Goals from Brajan Gruda and Danny Welbeck, one in each half, (probably) ended Darren Fletcher’s record as the interim manager as winless. This loss came after Wednesday’s Premier League draw at Burnley.
Man United season on the brink of collapse
When it came to the FA Cup, Brighton supporters would believe they owed Manchester United one. Even though they had won their previous three visits to Old Trafford before this season, they only had bad memories from this competition.
The largest was the ‘Smith must score’ FA Cup final in 1983, when Seagulls striker Gordon Smith’s last-minute shot at Wembley was saved by Gary Bailey, preventing them from winning, and they lost the replay.
The two teams faced up at Wembley three seasons ago. The majority of spectators believed Brighton was the superior team in the semifinal, but United won on penalties. Fabian Hurzeler’s team earned the victory this time. Chants against co-owners Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family resounded across Old Trafford as United was in turmoil.
At halftime, United went off with jeers echoing in their ears after Fernandes missed a free kick and Matheus Cunha shot just off target. After a poor performance that did little to challenge Amorim’s choice to overlook Mainoo for the majority of this season, he was hauled out in the second half.
