Brentford might have saved Manchester United from embarrassment against Man City

Mathias Jensen celebrated by holding his finger to his mouth after scoring against Manchester United in August. He had just given Brentford a two-goal lead within 20 minutes and he was gesturing that Erik ten Hag's side had been silenced and stunned.

Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot and Christian Eriksen threw their hands in disbelief while David de Gea trudged toward his goal to pick up the ball for the restart. De Gea had just made two mistakes in quick succession and Ten Hag, who was standing exasperated under the glaring sun on the touchline, was aware that his gameplan had been made redundant. De Gea wanted the ground to swallow him whole.

The players slowly returned to their positions as they stared at the blades of grass beneath them and it was clear at that moment they were already defeated. It is not impossible to overturn a two-goal advantage, but the players' body language, with the exception of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was shouting and gesturing from the halfway line, suggested they had already accepted their fate.

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Ronaldo rallied his teammates to respond and he urged them to concentrate. Ronaldo has played at the Bernabeu, Nou Camp, San Siro and Vicente Calderon, and he was never going to be fazed by the 17,000-capacity Brentford Community Stadium.

It's just a shame that his teammates were and they continued to capitulate in spectacular fashion, conceding another two goals before half-time. "Hey Jude," from the Beatles played after the final whistle to serenade Brentford for their emphatic win.

The atmosphere at Brentford is as intimidating as that of Lord's cricket ground and United had been shell-shocked regardless. The performance