Louis van Gaal’s position in the Old Trafford hot seat looked even more precarious as Stoke City swept Manchester United aside in a comfortable 2-0 victory to kickstart a busy day of Premier League holiday action.
Goals from Stoke forwards Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic punished United for a dreadful start at a blustery Britannia Stadium and although the visitors improved in the second half they could not repair the damage on Saturday.
Dutchman Van Gaal has overseen a seven-match winless run in which United have been eliminated from the Champions League and fallen out of the Premier League’s top four.
Having stormed angrily out of his pre-match news conference on Wednesday, Van Gaal will now face further questions about his future in charge of England's record 20-time league champions.
United, who slipped down to sixth in the table, face Chelsea at home on Monday.
A stirring first-half display helped Stoke City hand Manchester United a third consecutive defeat in the Barclays Premier League, as Mark Hughes’ side downed the visitors 2-0 at the Britannia Stadium on Boxing Day.
United came to Stoke on the back of six matches without a win in all competitions and four in the league, and first-half goals by Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic ensured another miserable day for Louis van Gaal.
The United manager opted to drop captain Wayne Rooney to the bench for tactical reasons. However, that decision did not pay dividends, with United struggling in attack before Bojan put Stoke ahead with a simple 19th minute finish.
The Spaniard capitalised on a defensive error from Memphis Depay to open the scoring but there was nothing fortunate about Stoke’s second, which came in the 26th minute courtesy of a stunning long-range strike from Arnautovic.
Rooney was brought on for Memphis at half-time but, although United improved in the second half, they were unable to produce a comeback and have lost four matches in a row in the same season for the first time since 1961.
Arnautovic curled an early free-kick wide but it was a poor piece of defending that allowed Bojan to tap Stoke into the lead. Depay's attempt at a defensive diving header presented the ball to Glen Johnson, who pulled the ball back for Bojan to prod in with David De Gea stranded.
Just six minutes later Arnautovic doubled the buoyant hosts’ advantage in magnificent fashion.
The Austrian unleashed a fierce swerving right-footed effort that flew beyond De Gea after Bojan’s free-kick had struck the wall.
Depay forced Butland into a low save with a 30-yard free-kick but the match would have been beyond United had Arnautovic not curled wide when one-on-one with De Gea having been put through by Bojan.
United dominated possession following Rooney's introduction and were denied a route back into the game as Butland produced an excellent point-blank save to thwart Marouane Fellaini after the Belgian had met the United captain’s low cross.
De Gea did well to prevent Ashley Young from turning a cross into his own net and make it 3-0 and it was Stoke who finished the stronger.
•Pieced together from reports by Reuters and premierleague.com. Photo shows under-pressure Coach Louis van Gaal.
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