Manchester United crashed to their worst start to a Premier League season since 1989 with a shock defeat against West Brom at Old Trafford. Second half goals from Morgan Amalfitano and Saido Berahino either side of a sumptuous Wayne Rooney freekick condemned the defending champions to their second consecutive league loss. The Red Devils started the brighter of the two and had the Baggies hemmed into their own half in the early exchanges, with Javier Hernandez and Nani looking threatening. The latter almost created an opening midway through the first half after floating a cross in toward Rooney, who saw the ball drift past him out of play. West Brom weren't without their chances either, and were happy to operate on the counter attack for large swathes of the first half. Stephane Sessegnon came the closest for the away side when he flashed a header across the face of goal on the half hour mark, after Berahino saw a header of his own drift wide. But the best chance of the first half was created by Anderson, who, 10 minutes before the interval, latched onto the end of Shinji Kagawa's cross before powering a header against the crossbar. The Brazilian reacted quickly when the ball bounced back into play, but saw his miscued rebound sky over the bar. With the game still deadlocked at the interval, West Brom gradually grew in confidence and their swashbuckling counter attacking paid dividends early in the second half. Amalfitano first collected the ball on the halfway line, waltzed past Michael Carrick, nutmegged Rio Ferdinand and chipped past David de Gea when through one-on-one with 53 minutes played. But the lead lasted just three minutes after Phil Jones was first hauled down outside the penalty area before Rooney saw his freekick float into the bottom corner of Boaz Myhill's goal. The Baggies were more than holding their own at this point and were perhaps unfortunate to only be level when Jonas Olsson hit the bar. The visitors were well on top after Rooney's strike and Berahino finally restored his side's lead on the 66 minute mark. The 20-year-old let loose a sublime long-ranged strike from the edge of the area that nestled in the corner of de Gea's net to stun Old Trafford. There was still time for late drama however as United stepped up pressure, and thought they had levelled late on when substitute Marouane Fellaini converted Nani's cross. But the referee correctly blew for offside as the Baggies held on to only their second win of the season.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
