Juan Camilo Zuniga of Watford celebrates scoring his side’s second goal
Watford have secured a deserved famous win over Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United at Vicarage Road for their first home win of the season to trigger a crisis at Old Trafford.
It was the Red Devils third defeat within a week after the painful derby loss to city rivals, Manchester City. It was followed by a shock 0-1 Europa League defeat by Feyernoord Rotterdam on Thursday.
The match against Watford was therefore a must win for United to keep their title hopes alive and regain confidence.
Watford made a superb start; United were in disarray and could have conceded three goals in the opening 20 minutes.
Watford’s pressing yielded dividend in the 34th minute when Etienne Capoue sounded a warning to the visitors of a looming disaster by putting his team 1-0 up.
Though Marcus Rashford restored hope for Manchester seventeen minutes after the break with a close range effort, substitute Juan Camilo Zuniga tucked a well taken right jab into the right corner for 2-1 Watford. He was only three minutes on the field.
It broke the United spine and Mourinho’s boys did not do enough in fighting back. This left room for Watford to keep surging fearlessly.
It paid off handsomely with a minute remaining in added time when Marouane Fellaini did not have any option but to foul a mesmerising Zuniga. Troy Deeney made no mistake as he blasted the penalty kick to the roof of the net to make the result more embarrassing.
With the way Man Utd played, they were not at the level expected of a serious title contender. Questions will now be asked about Mourinho’s strategy. With Paul Pogba, providing much needed defensive cover, a more creative midfielder than Fellani would have been better. Mata or Schweinsteiger would have been more useful. It cannot be understood why a player like ex-Dortmund brilliant attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was not used. If you decide to ignore important players, you must get the results or questions would be asked.
It is also time to bid farewell to Wayne Rooney. His best days are simply gone. He would be more useful to the team coming off the bench when needed. Also Mourinho needs to go shopping for central defenders if he hopes to challenge for titles.
Three defeats in a matter of days for a team that doled out 120 million Euros to acquire world most expensive player Pogba and added millions to get Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bertrand Bailly and Mkhitaryan puts Mourinho under pressure. To whom much is given, much is expected. His troubles may have just begun. They should be the team to beat, at least in the Premier League. Unfortunately, at the moment they are not.
Just across the road, Pep Guardiola is doing better with Man City. This makes matters worse for Jose Mourinho.
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