After overseeing yet another humiliating loss as Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer walked over to the angry away fans and held both hands up in apology, before giving them a quick wave.
He may well have been waving goodbye.
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Even Solskjaer sounded unsure whether he’ll be given another chance to turn things around after a 4-1 loss at Watford in the Premier League underlined just how badly United is struggling at the moment.
“I work as hard as I can, as well as I can,” Solskjaer said when asked about his future. “But at the moment we’re not getting the results so I understand your question. But as I said, I’m not going to discuss that with you here and now.”
Saturday’s result was bad enough but the performance was so lacklustre — even before two late goals padded the scoreline for Watford — that it left Solskjaer’s future in in serious doubt, with United dropping to seventh place in the standings.
“It was an embarrassing first half,” United goalkeeper David De Gea said. “It was hard to watch the team playing like today. I think it’s a nightmare.”
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Solskjaer has been able to ride out previous stretches of underperformance, in part because of his popularity with fans as a former striker who took on legendary status because of his ability to come off the bench to score crucial winners. But even the United fans seemed to turn against him when he came over to applaud them after the game.
“We’re embarrassed by losing the way we do,” Solskjaer said about his gesture of apology toward the fans. “Sometimes you’ve got to say sorry. And that was a ‘sorry for the performance.'”
Unlike United, Chelsea showed again that it’s a genuine title contender this season by consolidating its lead atop the standings with a 3-0 win at Leicester.
Liverpool climbed provisionally into second place after dismantling Arsenal 4-0 at Anfield.
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard started his reign as Aston Villa manager with a 2-0 win over Brighton, while his predecessor Dean Smith saw his new team Norwich climb out of last place with a 2-1 home win against Southampton.
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For United, it was a fifth loss in its last seven Premier League games — the previous two coming to biggest rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.
This one could have been even worse, but Ismaila Sarr missed two chances to convert an early penalty — both of them saved by De Gea — after the first was retaken because of encroachment.
Joshua King still put Watford ahead in the 28th and Sarr made amends by netting the second just before the halftime break for Claudio Ranieri’s team.
Solskjaer responded by making two halftime substitutions — including bringing on the little-used Donny Van De Beek, who has struggled to get chances under the Norwegian since signing for United last year. The Dutch midfielder responded by pulling a goal back in the 50th after being set up by Cristiano Ronaldo.
United captain Harry Maguire was then sent off for a second yellow card after a clumsy challenge in the 69th, with Ronaldo having an equalizer ruled out for offside shortly afterward. Watford then added two goals in injury time to complete the rout.