It was a very disappointing night at Old Trafford for Stoke City, suffering a 3-0 defeat way at Manchester United on Tuesday evening.
Overview
Goals from Jesse Lingard, Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial were enough to edge past Mark Hughes' side - who failed to provide a touch of class on the pitch, helping to elevate the nervous and subdued atmosphere in the red half of Manchester.
Stoke's biggest failure during this match was their slow start, meaning that Louis van Gaal's United side could easily press home the advantage as Lingard spelt an early disaster for the Potters - heading home a cross from Cameron Borthwick-Jackson's perfect delivery, ending a shocking sequence of 11 matches without a first-half goal at home stretching over a period of eight hours and 40 minutes.
The visitors' defensive partnership and communication was clearly lacking this game as both Glen Johnson and Erik Pieters just could not cope with the likes of Anthony Martial and Juan Mata - who continually pressed and tested Stoke's troubled backline throughout the course of the game.
Things soon got worse for Stoke as defender Philipp Wollscheid was taken off injured in the first-half, ensuring that Stoke's miserable night in Manchester was about to get a lot worse. However his replacement, Phil Bardsley, did well in protecting the visitors' backline as Ibrahim Afellay went close with two efforts before the interval.
Stoke just struggled to effectively muster the quality to compete with Manchester United, and the Red Devils fully exploited the confidence of an FA Cup fourth round win at the I Pro Stadium, cruising past Stoke in the game.
Mark Hughes' men just could not utilise the sheer quality of their players as firm fan favourites Marko Arnautovic and Bojan Krkic failed to thoroughly test David de Gea during the 90 minutes. Although Stoke regained a small slice of momentum in the later stages of the game as they pushed forward more in the second 45 and enjoyed some better spells in possession, they were unable to break down the tight backline of the hosts as Marouane Fellaini looked solid and composed for United - commanding midfield and being the main architect for much of their attacking play.
Hughes' post-match view
Mark Hughes admitted his side's opening passage of play had an adverse effect on their chances of winning the game, as "the manner wasn't right" for facing Manchester United, because his players were unable to cause their hosts much trouble on the evening.
Instead of allowing Stoke's attacking midfield pair of Afellay and Pieters to open up play, the Potters just sat back in the early passages of play, urging the home side to press and exploit this calamitous mistake as Stoke's "passive playstyle" was inevitably punished - with Martial enjoying plenty of attacking freedom in the final third.