But while the match started well for the Red Devils, who bossed possession, it changed dramatically in the 26th minute when Juan Mata received a second yellow card and was sent off.
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It was United’s first league defeat at West Brom since 1984.
Defeat was a huge blow to United’s Champions League hopes and they are three points behind fourth-placed rivals Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
“Finishing in the top four is still our aim, but we are also aiming to win a trophy”, he said.
Man United boss Louis van Gaal, though, will be rueing missed chances as, even with one man less than their opponents, they could easily have got something from the match.
“(But) as a player you have to know also when you have a yellow card that you have to take care of that”.
Mata continued on to say “we’ll try until the end of the season to get this club where it deserves to be and that is in the Champions League” as it is painful for the players and the fans when the club doesn’t manage to achieve it. Mata knows “we need to win nearly every game to do that until the end of the season”. “It is a bad moment and it wasn’t in my opinion a necessary loss. When you see the half it was not necessary I think”.
Mata got two yellows in quick succession. I don’t think we were so uncomfortable. We didn’t give many chances away in the first half or the second half.
“We have played 60 minutes with 10 against 11 and that is always hard, but we were not uncomfortable”, said Van Gaal, who later bemoaned United’s fixture schedule.
Two minutes after being booked for encroachment, the Spanish playmaker recklessly kicked former United man Darren Fletcher and Dean brandished yellow, then red to leave the visitors a man light for over an hour of the match.
United, which are standing fifth in the league table, will play their next match against West Brom on Sunday.
We never looked like winning but instead of saying Mata was simply at fault for his red card, van Gaal inexplicably tried to bring character assessments into it when discussing the red card.
As far as betting is concerned for this game, I think that betting on the outright result is the way to go.
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Tony Pulis, West Brom’s manager, felt some sympathy for Mata. “As you can imagine, it’s not easy for me to write these lines”, the Spain global wrote in his blog.
