Manchester United had built up a nominal head of steam over the past fortnight or so but a run of fourth successive wins was brought to a halt at The Hawthorns.
The notion of United having turned a corner and started on a sustained upward curve always seemed slightly over-egged, and while Louis van Gaal will undoubtedly cite Juan Mata’s brainless sending off for costing his team dearly, the truth is that they produced precious little to suggest that they would have fared much better against West Bromwich Albion with 11 men on the field.
Salomón Rondón, the best player in a scrappy game, deservedly scored the decisive goal with 24 minutes remaining. Defeat left United in sixth, two points adrift of West Ham United and three behind Manchester City, who are fourth with a game in hand. Champions League qualification remains a very tall order.
Still, Mata’s 26th-minute red card was a clear turning point and, even on a weekend of quite stupid dismissals, the Spaniard’s two bookings took some beating in the witless stakes. It is probably worth pointing out that West Brom were the better team before Mata was dismissed but the Spaniard’s sending off so early on put an extra spring in the home team’s step. They were dominant thereafter, but despite carving out a series of good chances, at least one of which really should have been taken, United departed for the interval unscathed. Mata is one of the game’s more intelligent thinkers but he temporarily failed to engage his brain as two bookings in the space of 158 seconds culminated in the first red card of his career and provided a huge fillip for West Brom who, in truth, did not look like they needed much of a helping hand.
Mata’s first yellow was particularly daft - the midfielder deliberately obstructing Darren Fletcher’s free kick. Quite what Mata was thinking when he then swiped a boot at Fletcher’s ankle moments later and left Mike Dean, the referee, with no choice but to brandish a second yellow and, with it, the red card was anyone’s guess. Van Gaal has seldom been afraid to accuse one of his players of stupidity and it is hard to imagine the United manager arrived at any other conclusion after watching Mata trudge off.
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West Brom were seldom out of United’s half after that. Rondón led the line superbly, the forward putting his physique to good effect as he roughed up Chris Smalling and Daley Blind, Saido Berahino looked to exploit the space created by his strike-partner, and Craig Dawson and Stéphane Sessègnon teamed up to good effect down the right. Dawson was in the thick of it. In the ninth minute, he headed wide from Rondón’s cross when he really should have hit the target but was mostly seen bombing forward from right back and sending over a number of inviting crosses. The first came in the 17th minute, Craig Gardner nodding the ball down for Berahino, whose shot was blocked by Smalling.
Gareth McAuley was wrongly ruled offside after heading a fine free kick from Gardner across goal and wide of the far post, and after Mata’s dismissal, West Brom stepped up the pace. Dawson almost lobbed David de Gea with a 25-yard volley that beat the United goalkeeper but sailed just wide and Berahino’s first-time shot from Dawson’s low cross was blocked in the six-yard area by Smalling.
Something had to change for United and, at half-time, Van Gaal opted to shift Marcus Rashford, anonymous in a central role, out to the right and push Anthony Martial through the middle as Mata watched on from a seat behind the glass-fronted media suite. The uplift from United’s perspective was marked. Martial’s pace and power worried West Brom’s backline. The Frenchman had wriggled free on the left byline, and although West Brom intercepted, the ball trickled to Rashford, whose scuffed shot was deflected wide. Martial was running at West Brom’s defence again soon after, with Jonas Olsson booked after bringing down the United striker outside the penalty area. Ander Herrera’s resulting free kick hit the wall. It was just about Herrera’s last contribution. On came Morgan Schneiderlin although United might have benefited more for the introduction of Memphis Depay for the labouring Rashford.
Rashford has enjoyed an electrifying start to his United career with four goals in three goals, but this was a more sobering experience that should quell some of the hysteria surrounding the 18-year-old and, in a less familiar position on the right, he struggled. West Brom had begun to steady themselves and before long they took the lead. Fletcher passed to Sessègnon who played the ball out to Sébastien Pocognoli, a substitute. His cross was a peach but quite why Rondón – West Brom’s biggest threat – was left unmarked and given time to control the ball with his chest, swivel and shoot low into the bottom corner was hard to ascertain. Similarly perplexing was why Van Gaal waited a further eight minutes to bring on Depay for Rashford with his team trailing and time ebbing away. The ease with which West Brom saw the game out underlined just how feeble United were.