"Ten Hag better apologize to Ronaldo", "Theatre of tears" - Twitter goes wild as Manchester United suffer 3-1 loss to Brighton

Cristiano Ronaldo may be wearing a wry smile as Manchester United and Erik ten Hag's current woes continued with a shocking 3-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Erik ten Hag has been dealing with a ton of issues off the pitch recently and his side aren't doing him any favors on it.

The Red Devils started the game strongly, showing a lot of attacking intent. However, Brighton took the lead against the run of play in the 20th minute and Danny Welbeck came back to the Theatre of Dreams to haunt his former club. The veteran striker finished off a fine move to give the Seagulls a 1-0 lead.

Manchester United looked to hit back through Marcus Rashford in the 34th minute but his effort deflected off the post. Rasmus Hojlund thought he had given the hosts the lead on his first start for the club eight minutes later.

However, VAR intervened and deemed the ball to have gone out of play when Rashford worked it to Hojlund. It was more VAR agony for United and their new frontman who experienced a similar situation against Arsenal in a 3-1 loss.

Brighton then silenced Old Trafford in the 53rd minute and took a 2-0 lead in scintillating fashion. A clever move from the Seagulls saw Kaoru Mitoma and Tareq Lamptey combine on the left wing. The ball fell to Pascal Groß who did superbly to get in shape to fire past Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana.

A chorus of boos then rang out in the stadium when Ten Hag opted to bring off Hojlund for Anthony Martial in the 64th minute. The boos turned into utter disbelief when Roberto De Zerbi's men went further ahead in the 71st minute.

Joao Pedro piled more misery on the Red Devils when he tucked away a fine effort thanks to a neat pass from Lamptey. Fans started leaving Old Trafford with the Theater of Dreams stunned into silence.

However, Hannibal Mejbri gave United slight hope just two minutes later when the second-half substitute fired home a superb effort. He showed more spirit than many of his more experienced teammates.

It was a damaging result for Ten Hag's men who have faced three defeats in five games. A rival fan made light of the situation by suggesting the Red Devils manager will come up with excuses:

"If they lose Ten Hag will cry again saying that the ball didn't go over the line and they deserved at least a point against Arsenal. Players crying. Manager crying. Fans crying. Players relatives crying. It's a Theatre of tears."

Another fan reckons Ronaldo should be receiving an apology from Ten Hag:

"Ten Hag better apologize to Ronaldo as soon as possible!"

Here's how fans on X (formerly Twitter) reacted to Manchester United's shock defeat:

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Cristiano Ronaldo slammed Erik ten Hag before leaving Manchester United last year

Ronaldo took aim at the club before departing in November.

Ronaldo left Manchester United last November by mutually terminating his contract but he left one hell of a hailstorm behind him. The iconic striker put Ten Hag on blast in an interview for disrespecting him during his second season at Old Trafford.

The Manchester United boss handed the Al Nassr superstar a bit-part role with just four league starts and he was not fond of it. He refused to come on as a substitute in a 2-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur and one month later explained that he felt 'disrespected' by his manager:

"I don’t have respect for him because he doesn’t show respect for me. If you don’t have respect for me, I’m never gonna have respect for you.”

Ronaldo also accused Manchester United of wanting him out of the club while also touching on issues stemming from the club's ownership. Thus, he might be feeling a sense of justice watching Ten Hag's current struggles without him. He has gone on to excel with Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League while his former club have made a disastrous start to the new season.