Felipe Anderson produced a clever finish from close to score his first West Ham goal and give them the lead, West Ham doubled their lead before the break after Andriy Yarmolenko's shot deflected in off Victor Lindelof, Marcus Rashford halved the deficit with a deft flick from a corner to give the visitors a glimmer of hope and scored seconds after Jose Mourinho made a double substitution where he took Paul Pogba off but West Ham killed the game minutes later after Marko Arnautovic sprung the offside trap to go clear and score the third goal. West Ham 3-1 Manchester United.
If these are the last weeks of Jose Mourinho in English football, they will have been wholly atypical.
Not the addiction to conflict, nor the use of mass media, such as a televised training session, to make a public point: none of that is new. That was Mourinho's default from the moment he arrived at Chelsea in 2004 and swept us all away.
But the football? That's a wholly different matter. His teams were rarely like this: spineless, incoherent, timid. Only that awful period at Chelsea in 2015 was comparable to this and that ended in the sack in December. This is heading the same way.
Arnautovic sealed the victory by slotting past United goalkeeper David de Gea just minutes after the visitors had scored
Jose Mourinho looks furious and wags his finger in the air as the West Ham players celebrate their third goal with the fans
Marcus Rashford had briefly given the visitors some hope after his deft flick from a corner crept inside the near post
Felipe Anderson opened the scoring early on after a clever flicked effort beat David de Gea and nestled in the corner
Andriy Yarmolenko was fastest to the second ball from the corner and doubled after his effort took a fortuitous deflection
Yarmolenko leaps for joy after his curled effort deflected in to give West Ham a two-goal advantage before the interval
Yarmolenko's shot flicked off Victor Lindelof's thigh and looped into the net leaving a helpless de Gea no chance in goal
Paul Pogba and Mourinho shake hands after the United boss hauled off the midfielder in the 70th minute of the match
Generally, in the past, you might dislike Mourinho's style but you wouldn't deny his teams had certain qualities, such as a fierce tactical intelligence and a basic competitiveness.
Yet for so much of this match, United showed none of the above. Forget the Paul Pogba show, underwhelming though he was. (He withdrawn on 70 minutes.) This ran far deeper than a feud between two sparring egos.
This was a performance, like that at Brighton last month, which questioned the very point of Manchester United.
The fact that a struggling West Ham team which had lost its opening four game of the season could induce Mourinho to field a back three, which at times played more like a back five, would have been unimaginable under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Manchester United manager Mourinho looks unimpressed as a bad week ended with an uninspiring defeat
United chief executive Ed Woodward was in the stands for the game amid an unsettled relationship with boss Mourinho
West Ham defender Issa Diop times his sliding challenge to perfection to stop Romelu Lukaku from advancing up the pitch
Marko Arnautovic scored the third to put the game beyond doubt just minutes after Manchester United had halved the deficit
But it would also have been an anathema to Mourinho in his glory days. When he first arrived in England, his tactical switches were innovative and usually inspiring. Now they just seem bizarre. His teams were solid but his choices demonstrated swagger. He took calculated risks with a structure.
Here there was a sheer lack of coherence to this team. So when Marcus Rashford lost the ball under challenge to Pablo Zabaleta for 3-1 on 74 minutes, it came from David de Gea's kick out. In other words, United should have been in an ideal position to repel any counter attack.
Yet Mark Noble, man of the match, simply strode through midfield. He has time to pick out a pass and Marko Arnautovic just ran past Chris Smalling, with the back line (by now a back four) looking porous and lacking any midfield protection.
Jose Mourinho could complain about the 'foul' on Rashford - it might have been given by other referees - but it missed the point. United had ample opportunities to withstand such an attack but failed to do. They look tactically adrift, unable or possibly unwilling to what their coach asks of them.
Playing a back three seemed a case of massively overthinking the opposition but employing Chris Smalling as the central pivot and Scott McTominay as the right-sided central defender simply looked as though he was again making the point that the board hadn't provided him with the requisite defenders in the summer. Victor Lindelof, on the left side of the three, only lasted until 56 minutes, hooked for Rashford as Mourinho eventually reverted to 4-3-3. Eric Bailly, signed by Mourinho for £30m, was sat on the bench. Phil Jones, after his penalty miss in midweek, didn't even make it that far.
Lukaku tries to turn the ball goalwards after making some space in the box but can't connect with the cross properly
Mourinho berates the referee from the touchline after he awarded a free-kick to West Ham near the halfway line for a push
United midfielder Pogba uses his body to fend off Noble and Fabian Balbuena as he tries to protect possession of the ball
A dejected Rashford makes his way over to applaud the travelling supporters after the final whistle at the London Stadium
West Ham were the team attempting to play on the front foot. And, as such, they got a little lucky on 42 minutes. Anderson's corner was mis-headed by Issa Diop and picked up by Yarmalenko. He sized up his options, tried a chipped shot and saw it rebound off Victor Lindelof and loop over David de Gea. On this Mourinho did concede: 'We have Matic on the ball, we Luke Shaw and Lindelof a couple of yards away; we have to block, we have to press and we didn't.'
United were much better when Rashford came on for Lindelof on 56 minutes and switched to 4-3-3. With Rashford tying up Masuaku, Young had repeatedly got in to cross, and Fellaini always lurked, ready to punish any lapse. It required an excellent save from Fabianski on 65 minutes to deny him.
It was of course a coincidence that the moment Paul Pogba left the pitch, Manchester United scored. He alone could not be blamed for the performance, though he had done nothing to ameliorate it.
Yet just after he trudged off the pitch on 70 minutes to be replaced by Fred, Luke Shaw's corner was met by Rashford's impudent back heel, which beat Fabianski and suggested that a comeback was imminent.
The problem is that United had left themselves so much to do, they couldn't afford further mistakes. Yet their mediocrity made errors inevitable. So it was on 74 minutes, they were authors of their downfall in the move in which Arnautovic scored
He of course celebrated furiously, running to the bench and holding up the shirt of Carlos Sanchez, who damaged ligaments in midweek and faces months out. A few yards away from the celebratory melee stood Mourinho. He seemed lost, a man out of time and out of ideas to revive this great club.
Pogba throws his arms about in exasperation after having to buy a free-kick due to the lack of movement in front of him
Neither did Alexis Sanchez, Mourinho's 'must-have' signing of January. It would be hard to argue with that on the basis of his performances. Yet this was West Ham, not Barcelona. Manuel Pellegrini admitted afterwards he was pleasantly surprised to find that his compatriot would not feature.
Mourinho's reasoning was he wanted to play Anthony Martial - 'something you are asking for a long, long time' - and he is 'not a player very focussed on his defensive duties.'
Yet it was extraordinary to witness the opening 15 minutes. United barely ventured out of their half. West Ham had 84 per cent possession. Games aren't always won or lost in those opening exchanges; but often the narrative arc is established. It was here, with West Ham as the principal protagonists.
Within six minutes United were 1-0 down, with Noble the instigator. What he lacks in Instagram interactions, he makes up for in in actual contributions on a football pitch. He played a superb ball through to Zabaleta and the 33-year-old raced onto it and crossed for Felipe Anderson, who had drifted into space to score easily from a few yards out. Zabaleta might have had a foot offside; yet McTominay was deeper than his colleague and it was a mightily close call.
'I think we need a good start after the result on Tuesday,' said Mourinho. Since when did a Manchester United team crumble because Derby and West Ham had put them under pressure? He urged more of his team to have the mentality of McTominay but admitted: 'not all of them [have that]. Scott is a kid with a special character.'
The rest looked like a team constrained by their manager's innate caution. Romelu Lukaku did head against the post in 21 minutes after good work from McTominay and Young. But that was a rare foray.'
MATCH FACTS AND LIVE LEAGUE TABLE
West Ham (4-5-1): Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Rice, Masuaku; Noble, Diop, Obiang, Yarmolenko (Snodgrass 72), Anderson (Diangana 90+2); Arnautovic (Antonio 83)
Subs not used: Adrian, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Perez
Scorers: Anderson 5, Lindelof og 43, Arnautovic 74
Manager: Manuel Pellegrini
Manchester United (5-3-2): De Gea; Young, McTominay, Smalling, Lindelof (Rashford 56), Shaw; Matic, Fellaini, Pogba (Fred 70); Lukaku, Martial (Mata 70)
Subs not used: Grant, Bailly, Darmian, Herrera
Scorer: Rashford 71
Booked: Young
Manager: Jose Mourinho
Referee: Michael Oliver
Att: 56,938
MoM: Noble
LIVE LEAGUE TABLE
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