by Matthijs de Ligt and Marcus Rashford scored shortly after Andre Onana’s penalty save to put Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United on the road to a much-needed 3-0 win over promoted Southampton.
Both teams returned from the international break in dire need of a result, with Saints seeking a first point since their return to Premier League action against a side reeling from their humiliating home defeat to rivals Liverpool.
Southampton started well but collapsed after Onana saved Cameron Archer’s poor penalty, with De Ligt’s first goal for United and Rashford’s first of the season putting the Saints out of contention.
Alejandro Garnacho added some late brilliance to a victory that eases some of the pressure on Ten Hag, who could ill afford to oversee the Red Devils’ first defeat at St Mary’s since 2003 after two consecutive defeats.
United started shaky but the game changed when De Ligt headed home two minutes after Onana had saved Archer’s penalty, with the forward then guilty of giving Rashford too much time to strike shortly afterwards.
That period towards the end of the first half proved decisive on a day when captain Jack Stephens was shown a late red card for a foul on Garnacho, who scored in added time.
Saints boss Russell Martin made four changes on Saturday, largely sticking to the players who earned promotion, with homegrown player Tyler Dibling among those brought in.
The talented 18-year-old quickly showed United what they were up against, bursting past Diogo Dalot on the halfway line, roaring down the right and then cutting to his left to force Onana into a save.
Saints looked in fine form against an initially sluggish United side, who took 15 minutes to find their feet and saw Joshua Zirkzee denied by home debutant Aaron Ramsdale.
Noussair Mazraoui and Bruno Fernandes had chances while Amad Diallo impressed for the visitors, with De Ligt throwing himself in front of a Yuki Sugawara cross-shot as an open and entertaining start to the game continued.
Lesley Ugochukwu sent in a free header before Saints had a fantastic opportunity to take the lead, with referee Stuart Attwell pointing to the penalty spot after Dalot’s desperate challenge on exciting winger Dibling.
After a long moment in which VAR checked the foul was in the box, Archer stepped up and saw Onana save his poor 33rd-minute penalty and weak follow-up header.
It was a huge disappointment which the ruthless United capitalised on two minutes later.
Ramsdale had done well to turn away a Zirkzee attempt from 20 yards but could not prevent De Ligt guiding a header home when the resulting corner was played for Fernandes to send in a cross.
The Saints looked drunk and found themselves further behind in the 41st minute.
Ramsdale deployed to deny Marcus Rashford a counter-attack but the resulting corner proved costly once again.
Diallo kept the free-kick alive too strongly and played it back to Rashford, who was given too much time by Archer and sent a curling strike from 20 yards beyond Ramsdale.
The Southampton goalkeeper stepped up to prevent De Ligt from making matters worse before a break from which the visitors came roaring back when Mazraoui hit the side-netting and Rashford tried.
The hosts had lost their way and Ramsdale brilliantly tipped over a curling shot from Rashford in the 60th minute before Martin made a quadruple change.
The momentum shifted slightly in Saints’ favour and Ten Hag responded with a triple change, including bringing on the day’s arrival Manuel Ugarte for his debut.
Any hopes of the promoted side getting back into contention were dashed in the 79th minute when referee Attwell handed a straight red card for Stephens’ poor tackle on substitute Garnacho.
Fernandes raced over and substitute Taylor Harwood-Bellis impressively blocked a Zirkzee attempt, with Garnacho firing home the third they had been threatening for a long time in added time.
