Stoke City Beat Struggling Manchester United

 2-1 

It was a wet and windy day at the Britannia Stadium as Manchester United came in to play Stoke City.  United have not been up to standard and Stoke were keen to take advantage of that slump.  Manchester United had a dreadful first-half and by the end of it the Red Devils were down a goal and down both centerbacks.

After only ten minutes Jonny Evans was forced to come out with a lower leg injury and Rafael entered the match.  Starting rightback Chris Smalling moved inside next to Phil Jones to make room for Rafael. Before United could settle into this new formation Stoke scored to take the lead.  Charlie Adam scored from a long free-kick shot that took a lucky deflection off Michael Carrick (38').

Then, near the end of the first-half, Phil Jones came down hard trying to win a header.  Jones hit his head as he came down and a stretcher was required to get him to the sideline.  Manager David Moyes made an interesting decision with his next substitution and brought on Welbeck in place of the defender.  This forced Carrick to drop into centerback and Rooney to drop into midfield asWelbeck took the other forward position next to Van Persie.

Half-time seemed like a blessing for United as they made adjustments to their shuffled line-up.  As the second-half started United showed signes of improvement and Van Persie helped level the score.  Juan Mata played the striker in-on-goal and Van Persie scored with a half-volley to equalize (47').

However, moments later Stoke regained the lead when Adam scored a second goal following some more good luck.  Winger Marco Arnautović misfired on his shot attempt and the ball rolled right in front of Adam who smashed it home (52').

Manchester fought to get a second goal with Rooney, Van Persie, Welbeck, and Hernandez all getting action today.  Stoke held on though to get a rare win against the Red Devils.  Next week Stoke travel to Southampton and United host Fulham in Premier League play.