• Premier League

Ten stats that spell out Manchester United's crisis

ESPN staff
January 19, 2014
Manchester United were all at sea as Samuel Eto'o notched a historic hat-trick © Getty Images
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It was supposed to be a titanic struggle between two of the Premier League's heavyweights, but Chelsea's 3-1 dismantling of Manchester United was nothing but a classic mismatch.

Samuel Eto'o's hat-trick gave Jose Mourinho his 100th Premier League win, and it turned into an afternoon of surprising - and, for Manchester United fans at least, alarming - statistics:

1. Manchester United were listed as 4/1 pre-match by some bookies to win at Stamford Bridge - their longest pre-match price in the Premier League era

2. United suffered their seventh defeat of the Premier League season - as many as David Moyes' Everton in the whole of last season

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3. Only twice in the last 10 seasons have United lost seven matches - and that is in the entirety of the campaign

4. Moyes has never managed a team to victory at Stamford Bridge, Anfield or the Emirates

5. Samuel Eto'o is the first player to score a hat-trick against United the season after they won the Premier League title

6. Before facing United on Sunday, Eto'o had not scored a league hat-trick since November 2008

7. Eto'o is the first player to score a Premier League hat-trick for Chelsea against Manchester United

8. United have only ever had four hat-tricks scored against them in the Premier League - Eto'o, David Bentley (for Blackburn, 2006), Dirk Kuyt (for Liverpool, 2011) and Romelu Lukaku (for West Brom, 2013)

9. Eto'o's hat-trick is the first in a Chelsea-Manchester United league fixture since Denis Law in 1965

10. United have never been outside the top three by January 19th in the Premier League era. They are currently seventh, with their lowest points total by this date (37, their previous lowest was 41 in 1999, when they eventually won the treble)

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