Ole Gunnar Solskjær's troubles at the Manchester United became more serious with another miserable performance as the Red Devils going down to Watford FC 4-1 in an away match on Saturday.
With the busy Christmas and New Year period up ahead, United will have many matches to play during a short time, and getting full points against lower-ranked teams keeps the big clubs in good stead. But on Saturday, Manchester United came up with another poor performance as they lost to Watford, their problems further compounded by Harry Maguire getting the marching orders.
Joshua King (28'), Ismaïla Sarr (44'), João Pedro (90+2') and Emmanuel Dennis (90+6') scored for Watford while Donny van de Beek (50;) scored the lone goal for Manchester United, who remain at 7th position with 17 points from 12 matches. Watford are placed 16th with 13 points from 12 matches, their win against Manchester United after two successive defeats against Arsenal and Southampton.
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United enjoyed 59 percent possession but only nine shorts, only three of them on target. In contrast, Watford had 19 attempts and six of them on target.
King gave the Golden Boys the lead against his former club and Sarr made up for an earlier penalty miss with a powerful strike a minute before half-time.
Donny van de Beek pulled one back for United shortly after half-time but late strikes from João Pedro and Dennis sealed a Watford win, after away captain Harry Maguire had been shown a red card with little over 20 minutes to play.
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Having comfortably kept the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes at bay to earn their fourth victory of the season, the Hornets will quickly begin preparations f'r next week's trip to Leicester City, where hopes will be high of adding to their winning momentum.
In other matches on Saturday, Aston Villa gave new manager Steven Gerrard a perfect start by beating Brighton 2-0; Burnley held Crystal Palace, Newcastle drew with Brentford 3-3 while Norwich got the better of Southampton 2-1.
League leaders Chelsea beat Leicester 3-0 to move up to 29 points from 12 matches while Wolverhampton stunned fourth-placed West Ham United 1-0.
