Michael Carrick’s stay of execution as Manchester United boss may not last long after his team imploded in a 2-0 Premier League loss at Chelsea.
The visitors wasted a string of chances to take the lead at Stamford Bridge on Saturday before Morgan Rogers waltzed through the heart of the United defence to open the scoring on 50 minutes.
Lisandro Martinez then ruined any chance of a revival from Carrick’s men with two quickfire yellow cards, the second of which also conceded a penalty converted by Cole Palmer.
Winless in nine games, their defeat leaves the 20-time English champions still just one point above the relegation zone and in danger of ending the weekend in the bottom three.
Many expected Carrick to be axed following last weekend’s 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth.
The former United midfielder was instead given the chance to turn his side’s fortunes around and will lament a lack of ruthlessness during the first half.
Carrick recalled captain Bruno Fernandes after he was left out last weekend in the wake of criticising his manager’s tactics during the 4-1 thrashing at Como in the Champions League.
Fernandes should have marked his return with the opener when he blazed over from Bryan Mbeumo’s inviting cross.
The roles were reversed when Mbeumo could not stretch to meet Fernandes’s delivery at the back post before Amad Diallo was twice denied by Chelsea’s stand-in goalkeeper Mike Penders.
United did finally get the ball in the net when Matheus Cunha turned in Harry Maguire’s header from a corner, but the Brazilian had strayed just offside.
Carrick could not hide his frustration in a half-time interview with broadcasters and his mood soured further with a disastrous start to the second period.
Chelsea’s Rogers credits Carrick for revitalising his career during a spell together at Middlesbrough, but dealt a potentially decisive blow to his former boss.
The England international collected the ball inside the centre circle but was allowed to drive directly towards the United goal before dinking the ball over Senne Lammens.
Martinez also spoke out publicly in recent weeks to criticise United’s lack of spending in the transfer market to bolster Carrick’s squad.
But on this season’s evidence, Martinez is one of those most in need of replacing.
The Argentine international could not cope with Rogers’s strength moments later as he was penalised for hauling back the Chelsea forward.
From the resulting free-kick, Martinez then needlessly crashed into Wesley Fofana with a raised forearm.
After a VAR review, referee Peter Banks awarded a penalty and showed Martinez a second yellow card.
Lammens got hands to Palmer’s spot-kick but still allowed the ball to trickle into the bottom corner.
On a rare start since Xabi Alonso took charge of the Blues, Estevao had a third goal disallowed for offside when he crashed a pass from Palmer into the top corner.
Cries of “sacked in the morning” rained down from the Chelsea fans as their side toyed with United for the final quarter without adding to their lead.
Another big decision awaits the United hierarchy before the massive Champions League clash at home to Roma on Tuesday.
Beaten in two of their three European games so far, United face both the embarrassment and financial shock of an early exit should they fall to another defeat against the Italians at Old Trafford.
