With their miserable 3-1 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, Manchester United continued their losing streak at Old Trafford.
The first 80 minutes of Thursday’s match against Southampton, the weakest team in the Premier League, will have had anyone anxious about Brighton’s performance at Old Trafford. Thus, it was completely expected that the Seagulls would defeat Manchester convincingly.

Brighton triumphed comfortably, They scored three goals, had another goal ruled out by VAR, and missed chances in the end.

Manager Ruben Amorim has been eager to blame himself for the terrible run of results, but this is not a new occurrence. Under three different managers, Brighton has won their last three games at Old Trafford. The problem isn’t Amorim, it’s the situation he has inherited.

“We have to acknowledge the moment and not go around the problem,” Amorim explained later. “Everybody here is underperforming; no matter what the circumstances, we are underperforming and have to accept that. “It is unacceptable to lose that many games. For any Premier League club, but particularly Manchester United. So this is a difficult time, but we must persevere; there is no other option. We must suffer and continue.”

The most damning thing for United is that Brighton did not even have to be that excellent. They entered at Old Trafford having won only one of their previous nine league games. But instead of seeming out of shape and out of place, they cruised to victory.
Brighton’s last three-goal league game came in October against Tottenham Hotspur’s notoriously leaky defense.
“We are not surprised,” Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler explained. “We haven’t been getting the results that maybe we deserved. “We gave a very mature performance. We dominated the game and generated opportunities. The players appeared to be pretty confident on the pitch.

Bruno Fernandes’ penalty kick in the first half was United’s only attempt on goal. They did not have a shot on goal from open play in a league game at Old Trafford for the first time in nine years.
It was just another one of those days when researchers had to dig through the record books to see when United had been this awful. Their loss to Brighton is their sixth home Premier League loss of the year, which is the most they have suffered in the first 12 home games of a league season in 130 years. The last time it took place was during the 1893–94 season, when they played at the Bank Street stadium with the name Newton Heath instead than United.

Amorim is the first United manager to lose seven of his first 15 games in command since Jimmy Murphy, who took over briefly following the 1958 Munich air tragedy.
“We have to understand we are breaking all the bad records,” Amorim stated. “In many aspects, the opponents are superior to us. You have to admit that we are in a really challenging situation right now.
Amorim’s club has won 11 of 11 league games since he replaced Erik ten Hag in November. They are only five spots and ten points above the relegation spots in the table, sitting in 13th place. The risk is that things can worsen before they improve.

All five of United’s upcoming league games will be against teams ranked tenth or worse. Amorim’s club will be much closer to the drop zone than they are presently if they lose points to teams like Fulham, Crystal Palace, Tottenham, Everton, and Ipswich Town during the course of the upcoming month.
Those are the teams United struggles against the most. United has drew with Liverpool and defeated Manchester City and Arsenal under Amorim, although they have also lost comfortably to Nottingham Forest, AFC Bournemouth, and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

United paid their respects to Denis Law prior to their most recent terrible loss to Brighton. They have a statue outside Old Trafford honoring their renowned former striker, who passed away on Friday at the age of 84. He was a member of one of the best teams the club ever had in the 1960s.
The current situation is completely disconnected from the success that Law and his teammates have experienced, as Amorim made clear in his press conference following the game.