A turbulent week ended in utter misery for Jose Mourinho after Manchester United were comfortably beaten 3-1 by West Ham United at the London Stadium.
United were dumped out of the League Cup by second-tier Derby County on Tuesday against the backdrop of Paul Pogba being stripped of the vice captaincy by his manager. The buildup was dominated as to whether the French World Cup winner would be included in the starting XI given the fallout, but Mourinho named Pogba in a midfield alongside Marouane Fellaini and Nemanja Matic while Scott McTominay took up an unfamiliar position as part of a back three. Anthony Martial was paired up front with Romelu Lukaku with Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez left out of the matchday squad.
The move failed to have the desired effect though. Pogba was replaced after 70 ineffectual minutes by Fred, and by that point West Ham were already two goals to the good. Felipe Anderson gave the hosts a dream start on five minutes, although there was an element of offside about the Brazilian's effort, before Victor Lindelof inadvertently deflected an Andriy Yarmolenko shot into his own net two minutes before the break.
Substitute Marcus Rashford pulled a goal back for the visitors with a superb back-heel goal from a corner on 71 minutes, but United any belief that they could salvage at least a point was diminished three minutes later.
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West Ham captain Mark Noble was afforded too much time and Marko Arnautovic too much space in United's penalty area. The West Ham captain played in the Austrian striker who took his time before cooly finishing past David de Gea.
The 3-1 defeat means United have 10 points from their opening seven Premier League games, their worst start to a season since 1989/90, heaping more pressure on Mourinho, whose brand of football seems to be delivering neither points nor pleasure to United’s fans.
Mourinho told the BBC's Match of the Day that Arnautovic's goal should not have stood as Rashford was fouled during the buildup.
"When we scored the goal to come into the game, they scored right after and this was the referee mistake because there was a foul on Marcus Rashford before," he said.
On his decision to omit Sanchez, Mourinho snapped: "Look, for how many months people are asking for Martial and Alexis Sanchez is not playing well enough so this week it was time for me to agree so I picked Martial and left Alexis out."
Victory for Manuel Pellegrini's team - only their second in 30 league matches against United - means West Ham have taken seven points from their last three matches after starting the campaign with four defeat.
"We hope in the future to have a lot of these days," the Chilean said. "Today was the test we needed to prove we can play as a big team. Not just to get a result defending against United or City or Chelsea. We work every day. That to me more makes me happy.
"The result is obviously most important. Three weeks ago I talked exactly the same after we lost four games, that we are not going to change. People thought that was crazy but that was the way.
"The team is making a difference, the players delivered a big performance. Not just one player. Delcan Rice is doing well, still to improve. We had good possession and worked well as a team."
