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 of losing his job.
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.