Jose Mourinho left fuming after Watford stun Man Utd

Watford 3 Manchester United 1

There was talk of a mini-crisis last Thursday when Manchester United lost to Feyenoord in the Europa League and it could soon be upgraded to a full-blown crisis following yesterday's defeat at Watford.

The Hornets 3-1 victory inflicted on United their third defeat in eight days, a run that began last weekend with their home defeat to Manchester City. United's latest reverse leaves them in seventh position, six points behind their neighbours, the only team in the Premier League with a 100 per cent record after five matches.

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Pep Guardiola is clearly enjoying life at the Etihad but for Jose Mourinho life is becoming a little more stressful. "We started the season very well and had good results," he reflected. "I feel the first moment we had a defeat, a difficult situation, some of the boys are having a bit of difficulty coping with the negativity."

Mourinho didn't name names, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba failed to make much of an impact with the latter now a source of some concern to United fans. The world's most expensive player, the £89m Pogba was used in a deep midfield role alongside Marouane Fellaini but other than hitting the bar in the first-half the Frenchman contributed little.

Etienne Capoue opened the scoring for Watford on 34 minutes, firing Daryl Janmaat's cut-back past David De Gea after Anthony Martial had been robbed of possession (illegally, according to Mourinho) by Miguel Britos.

United levelled midway through the second half when Marcus Rashford, making his first Premier League start of the season, poked into the hosts' net from close-range.

But substitute Juan Zuniga restored Watford's lead seven minutes from time with his first touch of the game and Troy Deeney then made sure of the win with a penalty in the fifth minute of extra-time after Fellaini fouled Zuniga in the box. " We have had the toughest start of any club," said Deeney. "To come out with seven points is massive for a club like us...I am not surprised by how we played. We should take a bit more credit, we pressed well, condensed the space and were tough in the tackle. We need to be against teams like Manchester United who have high quality players and spend a lot of money."

The dig at United's summer shopping spree will have touched a nerve with their fans, who started the season with high expectations but already find themselves way off the early pace. Asked what he could do to get the club back on track, Mourinho replied: "I reflect on three factors from the match, but only one of them I can improve. The first factor depends on ourselves, it relates to our individual mistakes and collective mistakes as individual players and as a team. We have to improve something, it is in our hands. The second factor is the referee and I can’t control their mistakes, The story of the game is the result and not the ridiculous situation of the first goal.

"The third factor is luck, we didn’t have it. We were the best team when we lost Heurelho Gomes made a phenomenal save from a Zlatan Ibrahimovic header."

"The United job was a chance for Mourinho to rehabilitate his career after being fired last year for a second time by Chelsea," says Sky Sports, but United's third successive defeat across all competitions, leaves them "worse off this year than they were after as many matches last term," the Daily Mirror notes.