Manchester United 1 Swansea 2. Man Utd started the New Year in miserable style with a 2-1 home defeat against Swansea in the third round of the FA Cup. It was the first time the Swans had won at Old Trafford in 83 years of trying and the victory ramps up the pressure on David Moyes.
The United manager cut a forlorn figure on the touchline as his side were outclassed by the visitors for long periods of the encounter and, but for some wayward finishing in stoppage time, Swansea could have added another couple of goals.
Their reward for their victory is a trip to one of Birmingham, Bristol Rovers or Crawley on the weekend of 25/26 January, while for United they have just 48 hours to regroup before facing Sunderland in the League Cup semi-final.
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United, who have now lost four of their last six home games, began Sunday's match without the injured striking duo of Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney and it was Swansea's Wayne – Routledge – who opened the scoring when he latched on to Alejandro Pozuelo's pass on 12 minutes and lobbed the advancing Anders Lindegaard.
United needed only four minutes to reply with the impressive Alex Buttner teeing up Javier Hernandez for the equaliser. That's how the score stayed until 90 minutes when Wilfred Bony met Routledge's cross from the left with a powerful header. Bony and Alvaro Vazquez both wasted glorious chances to extend Swansea's advantage in the four minutes of injury time, during which hundreds of United supporters headed for the exit as their team slumped to only their second third-round defeat in the last 29 years.
United's abject afternoon was compounded by an injury to Rio Ferdinand (who was making his first start in a month) and a red card for Fabio after a wild challenge on Jose Canos ten minutes from time.
"When you lose games at any club, it's difficult," said Moyes later. "You can definitely see we are lacking that little bit of confidence... [and] we need to get back to winning ways and be hard to play against. Most importantly, we need to take something out of the good play we have had in games."
Asked if he felt under increasing pressure with the defeat to Swansea and the fact United are 11 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, the Scot admitted he had endured "a tough start" to his reign at Old Trafford, but added: "I am disappointed we have not won more games but it will change I have no doubt about that."
United's defeat at home to Swansea wasn't the only shock of Sunday's FA Cup fixtures. Though Liverpool and Chelsea both cruised to victories over Oldham and Derby respectively, West Ham were thrashed 5-0 by Championship promotion-chasers Nottingham Forest. Jamie Paterson was the home side's hero with a hat-trick as West Ham paid the price for fielding an inexperienced side.
Forest will host Ipswich or Preston in the fourth round while Chelsea are at home to Stoke and Liverpool travel to Bournemouth or Burton.
Arsenal, meanwhile, who beat Tottenham 2-0 on Saturday in a bad-tempered north London derby are at home to Coventry.
