Manchester United might now look closer to home for their problems

Perhaps now Manchester United will look closer to home to source their problems. At home, they have conceded three goals to five visiting sides this season and trudged off beaten six times.

That is three times as many losses as in Erik ten Hag's first season and double the number inflicted on David Moyes as he braved his own winter of discontent in 2013. It gets worse: this is the first time in the 145-year history of Manchester United they have lost six times at home in a season before Christmas.

United briefly dined off their proximity to Manchester City in the table, as well as their hat-trick of monthly awards last week. Their siege mentality was always going to require more than three points against a dysfunctional mirror image of a club.

Instead, they succumbed to a first-ever loss at home to Bournemouth. If Chelsea were the worst visiting side in M16 this season then Bournemouth were one of the best. They are another club where a newish coach's fingerprints are already all over the team.

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If there was any consolation for Ten Hag it is that the matchgoers that had not departed remain behind him. A gaggle of players were booed as they approached the tunnel at full-time on Saturday and the noise subsided as Ten Hag neared them. He received polite applause.

Ten Hag had barely wiped the blades of grass from his footwear and bookmakers had trimmed odds on him to be sacked before Christmas. Yet Ten Hag could be forgiven for feeling unsackable.

Consider the status quo: United have uncaring and absent owners, an interim chief executive, a minority stake that is taking an interminable time to be