Premier League new boys Huddersfield Town scripted a historic upset at the John Smith’s Stadium as they beat Manchester United 2-1 on Saturday to register their first win over the mighty Red Devils in 56 years.
David Wagners’ men, who after a terrific start had started to stutter in recent weeks, raced into a two-goal lead with little over half an hour played.
And United’s misery was compounded when defender Phil Jones suffered what seemed to be a hip injury and had to be subbed off for Victor Lindelof in between the two Huddersfield goals.
In fact, the Swedish defedner, who has struggled for playing time since his move to Old Trafford this summer, made a glaring error in the build-up to the second goal.
After Nick Pope had punted the ball up the length of the pitch, Lindelof had to make a routine headed clearance but somehow managed to miss the ball completely, allowing Laurent Depoitre the opportunity to round David de Gea and slot home into an empty net.
If Aaron Mooy’s opener had been more about Huddersfield’s verve, Depoitre’s strike was definitely more about the calamitous defending displayed by United’s Swedish defender.
Going into the interval, Jose Mourinho knew drastic improvements were required and despite the half-time introductions of Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, United didn’t quite live up to their tag of favourites.
Rashford would bundle in a goal 22 minutes from time but the Red Devils just couldn’t up their game at the John Smith’s Stadium.
United were poor throughout the game and thoroughly deserved to lose their unbeaten tag and manager Jose Mourinho rightly laid into his players in his post-match press conference.
To make matters worse for Mourinho and co, leaders Manchester City cruised to a 3-0 home win over Burnley, which meant that United now trail their arch-rivals by five points. They remain in second place, three points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs can go level with United should they beat Liverpool on Sunday, but will remain in third place barring an unprecedented result in their favour, as United have a far superior goal difference.
Meanwhile, the Terriers rise to 10th in the league table with their momentous win.