Manchester United suffered their sixth home Premier League defeat of the season, a 1-3 defeat against their bogey team Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.
This is the most number of home losses the club have suffered having played 12 times at home in more than 100 years and Ruben Amorim’s side remain in 13th position.
The Seagulls have now won six of the last eight meetings between the two sides, including the last three league fixtures at the Theatre of Dreams.
Home advantage has become a myth this season and the team seems to play better away from home and away from the glare of 75,000 fans.
United fail to make home advantage count again
The Portuguese had promised a rollercoaster season and we are certainly seeing it in action. After every good display in a big away game, the team fails to perform at home.
They were lucky to escape with a win on Thursday with Amad Diallo sparing their blushes with a 12-minute hattrick late on. Before that, bottom of the league Southampton looked much the better side.
As has become the norm, it was the home side who conceded first but they did respond well as Bruno Fernandes converted from the spot after Joshua Zirkzee had won a penalty.
But their gameplay completely collapsed in the second half as the Seagulls netted twice with Andre Onana having a shocker in goal.
When former boss Erik ten Hag had decided to move on from David de Gea, he had envisioned his new goalie to be comfortable with the ball at his feet and someone who is brave off the line.
He decided to splash £47.2 million in the summer of 2023 to bring Onana from Inter Milan, having worked with him previously in Amsterdam.
Onana error again
After a difficult first few months, he was looking like the real deal in the early parts of this campaign but on Sunday, the Cameroonian was anything but.
For Brighton’s second, he stayed rooted to the spot as Kaoru Mitoma ghosted in to score a diving header. And the third came from a huge mistake with the former Ajax star failing to collect a routine cross.
While his shot-stopping has helped the Red Devils quite a few times this season, Onana is building up quite a catalogue of errors in his still nascent United career.
Altay Bayindir has shown he is more than ready to step in if required, as seen from his heroic display against Arsenal in the FA Cup. It might be time to let the Turk have a go in goal starting from the next game against Rangers in the Europa League.
Feature image Stu Forster via Getty Images
Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social
Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
