Manchester United endured a miserable Boxing Day as they were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Stoke City to leave manager Louis van Gaal on the brink.
The Dutchman finally pulled the trigger to drop captain Wayne Rooney to the bench after weeks of strongly criticised performances but, even without the England skipper, the visitors were torporous and suffered at the hands of a confident Potters team.
Bojan Krkic netted in the 19th minute after a disastrous backpass by Memphis Depay allowed Glen Johnson to tee him up, before Marko Arnautovic hammered home a thunderous shot from outside the penalty box just six minutes later.
It left United in tatters and, even after Rooney was brought on at half-time, Van Gaal’s men had no answers to Stoke as they fell to a fourth straight league defeat for the first time since 1961.
Arnautovic curled wide an early free-kick but it was a calamitous piece of defending that allowed Bojan to tap Stoke into the lead. Memphis’s bizarre attempt at a defensive diving header presented the ball to Johnson, who pulled the ball back for the striker to prod in, with David de Gea stranded.
And just six minutes later, Arnautovic doubled the buoyant hosts’ advantage in magnificent fashion. The Austria international unleashed a fierce swerving right-footed effort that flew beyond a helpless De Gea after Bojan’s free-kick had struck the wall.
Memphis then forced Butland into a low save with a 30-yard free-kick but the game 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 England skipper’s low delivery.
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 on another dark day for Van Gaal, who appears to be nearing the end of his time at Old Trafford.
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