Manchester United joy at ending Arsenal's 49-match run proved short-lived after the Reds crashed to defeat at Portsmouth for the second time in six months.
A David Unsworth penalty and Aiyegbeni Yakubu's sixth goal of the season undid United in a frantic second half when Pompey matched the expensive quality of their visitors with a battling spirit and a splendid work-ethic which was a credit to their manager Harry Redknapp.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will probably not have much thirst for the red wine Redknapp undoubtedly offered after the final whistle.
The visitors, in truth, threw it away - just as they did at the end of last season when Pompey inflicted their first victory over them for 46 years at Fratton Park.
Pompey were full value again with every player a hero, even though they lost '2.3million striker Diomansy Kamara and Czech schemer Patrik Berger to injuries before half-time.
Block
After looking likely to be overrun in the first 20 minutes and then losing Kamara after little more than half-an-hour, Portsmouth put the block on United's creativity and emerged from the first half at least worth a split-decision.
Ryan Giggs, Alan Smith, Paul Scholes and, especially, Ronaldo had the chances to bury Pompey early on - the Portuguese winger shooting wide with the target clear in his sights from 12 yards after a piece of magic by Wayne Rooney.
Against all that Pompey had only a Lomana LuaLua solo effort to show for their efforts - his shot was charged down after he sent two defenders running the wrong way with a delightful twinkle of toes.
Scholes got away with a clumsy lunge which caught Kamara and although the Senegalese record signing battled on for a while he eventually had to go off - although at least he had the consolation of avoiding a third consecutive booking for removing his shirt.
But Pompey's revival was under way before his exit and substitute Fuller helped carry it on.
They fought for every ball with Nigel Quashie and Amdy Faye tigerish in midfield.
Yakubu was past Rio Ferdinand in pursuit of a throughball from Quashie after turning the England centre-half - only to be harshly pulled back for a foul.
Yakubu and the home crowd were furious but they almost profited from a lucky break in the 37th minute when Ricardo Fuller pulled the ball back for LuaLua, whose low shot was cleared off the line by Gary Neville.
Rattled
United were a little rattled and Rooney was booked for going in late on Quashie, even though his team-mates surrounded referee Neale Barry in protest.
Just before the break, Faye let fly from the edge of the area after United could not clear a needlessly-conceded corner and Roy Carroll went full stretch to tip the shot over as Pompey ended the half on top.
Pompey's creative influence Berger failed to emerge for the second half - with on-loan Cameroonian Valery Mezague replacing him.
Scholes should have equalised right after the break but he thumped his shot straight at Shaka Hislop and United buzzed around the goal for a spell until suddenly, in the 52nd minute, Argentinian defender Gabriel Heinze lost his head and pulled down Fuller in the area at the other end.
Ferdinand snapped and kicked the ball out of the ground when Barry awarded the penalty and was booked for his petulance, while Unsworth stayed ice-cool to ram home the spot-kick.
From then on the match was almost a carbon copy of the siege when United were trailing 1-0 in the second half at the same venue last season.
The visitors did everything but score - Ronaldo's header hit the bar, Smith nudged a shot wide, Hislop caught a collection of shots and Dejan Stefanovic and Arjan de Zeeuw headed a plethora of crosses.
There was action at the other end though and with just over 20 minutes to go Hislop's long kick brought a slip from Mikael Silvestre, enabling Yakubu to measure up his shot before steering it home.
United continued pressing but the barrier was immense and they rarely looked like breaching it.
Ferguson's side have now drawn five times and lost twice in the Premiership - not the form of champions.
Gutted that the Reds have undone last week's good work? have your say
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UNBELIEVABLE!!!! WHERE DID OUR PLAYERS GO... What a waste!!! The arse wobble and drop points and we blew it AGAIN!! Did we believe we could just roll over them...Well we should of THIS IS MANCHESTER UNITED!!! I think a few of the players have forgotten what shirt they have on, why did it take so long for keane and saha to come and WHY!!?? were they on the bench!!??MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES OVER AND OVER AGAIN!! MOURINHO IS LAUGHING HIS ARSE OFF!!! They are going to nick this title! boring so what they are getting the results and keeping very quiet.
Damn!!!...i just hopet that..."hey that's gonna be easy"...ohhh...i'm just so damn dissapointed...if ManU gona keep up like this then we can only dream about getting in to the final...=(
But hey keep up the great work...hope next time will be better results =) I'm holding my thums on you guys...=)=)
SACK Alex Ferguson.
Just so dissapointed...but i'll hope that next time there will be better results...GO MANU =)
Well done boyz, you do us proud. You bunch of losers.
"We have to beat Portsmouth", "We can go on an unbeaten run", "Where back in the title race", "Our season start here". All a load of crap, the players should be ashamed, not fit to play for Man Utd.
You just knew our players would mess up. For the love of god the title is over for us, this season is finished. Sack Alex Ferguson and get someone who can motivate these guys.
You just knew our players were going to mess up. Forget about the title, this season is finshed. Lets sack Ferguson on Monday and get someone who can motivate these crap players.
Impressive stuff. Keep it up.
Is this the winners website?
what the hell is going on at OT these days one week we beat the girls from loondon and then we fall apart against pompey.If this is supposed to make the fans happy then I'm sorry to say it but maybe the time has come for a change at managerial level and I'm not talking about good old Carlos taking over by the looks of things the players have lost the plot about which way they are meant to be playing.this is becoming enbarassing players such as sylvestre ronaldo [brilliant for portugal has been crap for us this season] ryan giggs and roy keane maybe even scholes and time off to think about how they are playing ruud needs a good boot up the arsenal and maybe droped to the bench for a while as it he is getting more and more frustrated with the players around him and it's showing in his preformances of late [reckless challenges etc] give some of the jounger guys a bloody chance because the way this season is going we will be lucky to finish in 4th place and when that happens we may find out what really motivates this club playing to win trophies come the end of the season or picking up huge sums of money every month for doing a job that we the fans would love the chance to do .PS can we please have smith and saha starting in the next game and fletcher with kleberson in midfield for examples.thanks
I've had enough of this crap. This team is finshed, accept that it is an end of an era for us. Ferguson reign was successful but has ended badly, he should do the right think and leave.
I hate to say it but its finshed for us now. The best think for us is to build for next season. Ronaldo, Rooney, Fletcher, Miller, Pique, Spector, Smith, Heinze, Rossi, Ferdinand is the future. Lets stop playing Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Kleberson, Djemba, Fortune, Phil and Gary Neville, and Silvestre. Stick them in the reserves and let them go in the summer. The best think is to build again by playing Fletcher in the center regularly alongside Ronaldo, Rooney and Rossi every week. Even if it means losing a Champions league spot. The way we are going were not going qualify anyway. I am really dissapointed, the lads let us down today, they have to accept their not good enough, no matter what the manager says to them. Its between Arsenal and Chelsea and my money on the Russians.
Why are we so crap? No joke we are a rubbish team. Rooney made a mistake joining us, he should have stayed with Everton at least their going places. We are going in one direction and thats DOWN.
David Gill step up and take action. SACK Ferguson. Get a new Manager, someone who knows what he is doing.
What an absolute disgrace,when is SAF going to see that Ryan Giggs just does'nt have it anymore.The build up from the mid-field is so slow,we used to be so quick.What a result against a very ordinary team it really was a disgrace.
Right! Lets stop beating about the bush any more, We are an average-to-poor side - fact! Ferguson has no idea how to motivate the players - fact! He has no system of play - fact! We will not finish in the top 5 - fact! Some of us have been saying this since January so it is not a knee-jerk reaction like the ' Fergie is God ' brigade would have you think. I am gutted after todays result, but not one bit surprised and to make it worse Citeh and Newcastle next. Can't see us getting more than a point out of those two games. That would leave us, with a third of the season gone, in about 10th place. Even the most 'rose-tinted' supporters must be starting to realise we have a problem. I believe if Fergie stepped down now we could qualify for Europe. Otherwise it is a very realistic possibility that we wont.
I have an older brother that is an Arsenal fan. The last two years have been hell for me. I want to thank the Manchester United players for making this day even worse. I had a great day last Sunday, but i guess its not to be for me. I have always defended my team against my brother and his mates, but no more. I've can't say anything more, i have no more reasons for why we do so badly these days. I'm going to accept my brothers view that Ferguson has lost it, selling Beckham was a mistake, bought extremely badly and we are now going into decline. Based on Arsenal performance against Man City in the week with their youth team i will have to endure Arsenal domination for a few years now. Again thankyou to Alex Ferguson and the Man Utd players.
Now you really are back in the title race, thanks for the comedy Taggart.
I love it I love it, I really love it and how I look forward to City winning at the Theatre of divine righteous next week WHOOPEE!!!!
We have got a reasonable defence, a good attack, but there is nothing in-between. United need a driving playmaker in midfield. At the moment, SAF's tactics are too well known by the opposing managers, and everyone still wants to beat United, they will always be up for it. As I have said before, we never really built on the success of '99, and have gone backwards.
At the moment, we will be a mid-table finishing side at best.
So much for stringing a run together. Looking forward to the next games against City & Newcastle with some trepidation!!!!!!!!
this bullshit has to stop the million pound players have to take their fingers out make them train seven days a week
This is out-and-out crap... what is going on? Someone has got to motivate these multi-millionaire players, and it isn't Fergie obviously. I was so PO'd... frankly, I'm sick of Fergie; it's time for him walk the green mile. As for the players, there are a few who should take the stroll with him. Disgusting!!
I said let's see where we are on Saturday night! Close the door on your way out Alex!
I said in previous threads that we are unable to beat the "lesser" teams, and we would therefore be classified as being in those ranks ourselves. We just joined. I also said that a defeat here today and the call for SAF's head would ring out again. It's happening. We have seen the real United today folks, and we shouldn't be surprised. I have supported this team man and boy for over 45 years, and without a doubt this is the worst I have ever seen. It would be easier to take if there was any semblance of effort, committment or passion. This is a team without leadership, direction or purpose. It's time for the board to step in and get a new manager, this one ain't working guys. e.g. why substitute Smitty when Rooney's on a yellow and looking like getting another one with his petulance? That made absolutely no sense. Christ my old pub team'"s manager could do better than that. It's hard to know wether to laugh or cry any more. As for the players, 'nuff said, bad as they are personally, they need proper leadership, and it's just not there. There was not one player today worthy of any praise. Pompey players barely broke into a sweat. Harry Redknapp must have been pissing him self laughing at what we saw today, along with the rest of the Premiership. We don't even look like a decent Conference side. All this talk after the Arsenal game, sure, we're back in the race aren't we? The relegation race maybe. Someone here said accept it, we're in a rebuilding phase now, well I can't agree, we'll need to be in bloody survival mode soon. Forget about it. Watch Sparta and Citeh turn us over too. Assuming we manage to stay up, then the only possible way for Euro next year is via Inter Toto cup.
I am ashamed and thoroughly embarassed to be a Utd fan at the moment. SAL, never mind Live the Dream, this is a nightmare.
anti fergie brigade out and about I see, kind of understandable. Last season he tinkered around with the team dropped players, ( keane ruud)underestimated teams its carried thru to this season its easy to give him stick but today apart from keano being on the bench could you field a better side??? what the hell has happened!? it was portsmouth for erics sake! rooney ronaldo showboating,dont believe the hype boys your playing in a TEAM! the other players just stop and watch, because they dont know what they' re going to do.(and recently its an aimless shot from outside the box when there's a pass to someone in a position to score) Silvestre losing the ball the man whatever, giggs it used to be mazy runs an end product! if you've lost interest hang up the boots put in a transfer something! do the team train together??? cause its the same every week! Other teams have us worked out all of them flood the midfield everyone behind the ball get them on the counter attack.birmingham, pompey twice middlesboro lost count its SO FRUSTRATING!!!!