After a humbling opening day defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend, Manchester United would have hoped to make amends in their trip to the capital on Saturday evening.
However, a fantastic Brentford side had different ideas, thrashing United and scoring all four of their goals within the opening 35 minutes.
Erik ten Hag became the first new manager to take to the dugout at Old Trafford and lose their opening two competitive games since 1921. Furthermore, this is now the Red Devil's fourth Premier League loss in a row, and their seventh in a row away from home. United are breaking records with each passing game, but not ones they would want to be associated with.
Aside from the shocking scoreline and concerning statistics, here are four things we learnt from the defeat.
Goalkeeping struggles
If there has been one constant for United in the turbulent decade following the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, it has been goalkeeper David De Gea. The spaniard has been the club's number one ever since signing from Atletico Madrid back in 2011, earning four Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year awards in the process.
However, in the opening games this season, De Gea has seriously struggled. After faltering to concede two preventable goals against Brighton on the opening day, the 31-year-old was at fault twice within the opening 18 minutes at the Brentford Community Stadium.
Brentford's opener was quite simply down to a howler from De Gea, letting a tame strike from the edge of the area by Josh Dasilva squirm between his gloves ten minutes in. Just eight minutes later the keeper made a mistake with his feet instead oh his hands. An abysmal attempt at playing out from a goal-kick led to De Gea playing a hospital pass to Christian Eriksen - who was rightfully aggrieved at his own goalkeeper - on the edge of his own box, an attempted flick around the corner from the Dane was intercepted by Mathias Jensen to subsequently finish.
Ten Hag will likely be frustrated by his situation between the sticks, particularly after the club chose to loan 25-year-old back up keeper Dean Henderson to newly promoted Nottingham Forrest, leaving Tom Heaton as the only other option to replace the struggling Spaniard. After seeing Henderson keep a clean sheet in Nottingham Forrest's 1-0 victory against West Ham United on Sunday, could Ten Hag consider recalling him from loan?
Individual errors
"We conceded goals with individual mistakes. You can have a good plan, but then you put the plan in the bin. I think it’s nothing to do with tactics." Said Ten Hag.
The Dutchman's words in his post-match press conference were clear - individual errors are what cost his side in the capital. After a particularly poor display from Fred and Scott McTominay in midfield against Brighton, yet more mistakes were made against Brentford, with Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo all struggling.
After the first two goals were caused by the aforementioned errors from De Gea, United were not done yet. As the home side swung in a corner Eriksen lost his man - Ivan Toney - at the back post, allowing him to head the ball back across goal to be bundled in by Ben Mee, beating a bumbling Martinez simply by showing more hunger and desire to do so.
The Bees' fourth and final goal came as United were caught sleeping trying to get one back themselves. A Brentford long ball clear from their own box left the Red Devils exposed on the counter, as the home side remarkably found themselves flying forward two on two. Toney once again was the provider as he played a fantastic first time pass from wide on the left-hand side, finding a flying Bryan Mbeumo through the middle to fight off Shaw and slot home past De Gea.
Four goals conceded, at least four individual errors, United have plenty of improving to do in their fight for the top four.
Recruitment
Without wanting to sound like a broken record, it is impossible to discuss the one simple solution to United's ongoing problems - recruitment.
Despite a new manager and a new era, it has simply been same old same old so far. Ten Hag is now the fourth manager this bunch of players have let down, following Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick. With Mourinho's tough management style, Solskjaer's arm around the shoulder approach, Rangnick's home truths and Ten Hag's tactical approach, it seems there is just no way of dragging consistent results out of this group.
With each passing day, Rangnick's tenure and controversial comments look increasingly accurate. His comments on the players, their mindset, and the poor approach to transfers from those above certainly struck a cord with the fans, but ultimately seemed to cost him his consultancy role after rumours the Glazers didn't particularly enjoy the criticism.
After 12 weeks of failure chasing Ten Hag's primary target Frenkie De Jong (with the added blow that it seems he prefers a move to Chelsea) and a deal for Marko Arnautovic abandoned, it shows things have certainly not changed within the inner workings of Old Trafford, but something certainly needs to if results on the pitch are going to improve.
No sign of second season syndrome for Brentford
For all of United's downfalls on Saturday evening The Bees were just as good. Thomas Frank's side played some fantastic football and their high-tempo pressing game was far too much to handle.
After a credible 2-2 draw away at Leicester City on the opening day and the thrashing of United means Brentford find themselves on four points in the league after two difficult opening games.
The London side look good going forward, despite losing Eriksen to United in the summer after his six-month deal expired. Dasilva and Toney in particular have made up for the loss of the Dane, with the prior on two goals in two games, and Toney contributing a goal and two assists so far, helping The Bees score a whopping six goals in their opening two games.
As sides such as Huddersfield Town and Sheffield United have struggled with the synonymous second season syndrome in recent years, Brentford have gone a long way to making sure they do not suffer a similar fate.