F365’s early loser: the worst Manchester United team in Premier League history

Manchester United’s appalling season reached another new nadir at Brighton with confirmation it will be their worst since at least 1991. End it now…

It’s official: this is the worst Manchester United side in Premier League history.

Their abject 4-0 defeat at Brighton means the Red Devils will conclude a truly wretched season with their lowest points total since 1991. If – or rather when – they fail to beat Crystal Palace on the final, it’ll be the worst since 1989/90.

That was the season in which this banner was unfurled on the Stretford End: ‘Three years of excuses and it’s still crap… ta-ra Fergie’. It ended with a 13th-place finish in the First Division but an FA Cup win saved Sir Alex Ferguson.

Ask United fans tonight and doubtless they will say no one should be spared this time. From top to bottom, the club is rotten. The team is putrid.

This is a side lacking any of the basic traits required for success. Or even to compete. Thirty-two years ago, Ferguson’s strugglers had some redeeming features. The likes of Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes at least offered some fight. The modern United cannot muster even that barest of minimums.

If these players look around, and you can be certain they will, they will find excuses. The United owners and hierarchy have failed even more spectacularly and consistently than the team for a longer period of time. But there is no mitigation for some of the performances than this group has phoned in this season.

Five ways for Man Utd to salvage what’s left of this wretched season

At Brighton, it all came together for United to fall apart one more time, even more spectacularly than their last nadir at Anfield. The Red Devils encountered a Brighton side that is everything they are