Manchester United slumped to another Premier League defeat, suffering a 4-3 loss to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium this afternoon.
It started ever so promising for the Europa League final hopefuls, but reality struck as they reaffirmed themselves as the worst-performing club guaranteed to play in next season’s competition.
Mason Mount gave Ruben Amorim’s visitors an early lead before the Bees struck twice in a six-minute period: first, Luke Shaw inadvertently put the ball into his own net, before Kevin Schade completed the turnaround with a brace. Yoane Wissa made it a three-goal lead before Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo netted in the final ten minutes.
FT: Brentford 4-3 Man Utd #BREMUN pic.twitter.com/Rw6xbsaSiA
— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) May 4, 2025
A 17th loss of the season, unheard of during their legendary period of dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson, doesn’t quite tell the whole picture. Because if only results between the 17 clubs guaranteed to be playing in the Premier League in 2025–26 are counted this season, Man Utd would be in 17th place, picking up just 23 points in 29 games against those other 16 teams (five wins, eight draws and 16 losses).
Sixteen of the 39 points that United have picked up this season—41% of their overall total—have come from the three already-relegated sides. A pair of doubles against Southampton and Leicester, plus four points from Ipswich. Their other non-relegation wins came against Fulham (home and away), Brentford (home), Everton (away), and Manchester City (away).
Today presented an opportunity for United to complete a double over Brentford, especially after their impressive 3-0 victory at Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final. However, that was not to be the case, and in doing so, United lost a Premier League match they led for the first time this season.
You can forgive the 20-time English champions if they have already decided to focus their resources on securing a second Europa League title. With an average age of 22 years and 270 days, United’s starting XI against Brentford was the third-youngest any side has ever fielded for a Premier League match, behind only Middlesbrough v Fulham in May 2006 (20 years, 181 days) and Arsenal v Portsmouth in May 2009 (22 years, 237 days).
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From a historical context, this loss is significant, as they will not reach the 50-point mark in a Premier League season for the first time. Previously, their worst points total was 58 during the 2013/14 season. Even more damning is the fact that since Amorim took charge on November 11th, only the now-relegated sides of Ipswich (3), Leicester (3), and Southampton (1) have won fewer Premier League games than Man Utd (6).
If they were to win out (their last three remaining games) and other results go their way, 12th is the best possible placement, but that is still four places below United’s poorest final position, thus guaranteeing a first bottom-half finish. This last happened in 1989/90 when they won the FA Cup despite ending in 13th spot under the aforementioned Alex Ferguson.
By contrast, Brentford have won 15 Premier League games this season, their joint-most in a campaign in the competition, along with 2022–23. They currently sit ninth, with an outside chance of a seventh-place finish, though an eighth-place finish would be the club’s best-ever Premier League return, and that is not outside the realms of possibility.