Cristiano Ronaldo teased by Roy Keane as Man Utd suffer Brighton defeat

Manchester United did not make the dream start to the Erik ten Hag era that fans had been hoping for.

Having suffered through the messy handover between the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era and Ralf Rangnick’s doomed spell as interim manager last season, supporters were desperate to make a fresh start for the 2022/23 campaign.

However, you couldn’t help but get a damning feeling of deja vu when the Red Devils produced a dire first-half display against Brighton & Hove Albion that was taken directly out of the 2021/22 playbook.

Ten Hag went all in with his midfielders as Scott McTominay, Fred, Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen all featured from the start, but it was the United defence that needed reinforcements as they slumped to a 2-0 deficit.

Pascal Gross continued his ritual torment of the Old Trafford club firing the Seagulls into the lead after 30 minutes, arriving at the back post to get on the end of Danny Welbeck’s cross and duly tapping into an empty net.

Pascal Groß scores for Brighton and gets Erik ten Hag's Man Utd era off to the worst possible start!