Manchester United fell to their third Premier League defeat of the season on Saturday as West Ham United ran out convincing 3-1 victors at the London Stadium.
The result caps a difficult seven days for the Red Devils who drew at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers last Saturday and were dumped out of the EFL Cup in midweek.
West Ham’s front three each played a role in one of the goals as Manuel Pellegrini’s side stretched their unbeaten run to four with their biggest win over United in 36 years.
Mourinho left out the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Jesse Lingard and reshuffled his lineup into a 3-5-2 formation which the visitors failed to settle into during the first half.
That helped the Hammers get off to a flying start when summer signing Felipe Anderson opened his account for the club by finishing off a well-worked move on six minutes.
Mark Noble’s through-ball inside Luke Shaw released Pablo Zabaleta whose square cross was perfectly paced for Anderson to skilfully flick beyond David de Gea.
Things went from bad to worse for the Red Devils before half time as their failure to clear a corner allowed Andriy Yarmolenko to work a shot on his left foot, although only a huge deflection from Victor Lindelof took it past De Gea, who was on his way to the opposite corner.
West Ham had a couple of opportunities to extend their lead early in the second period, with Marko Arnautovic blazing a volley high and wide at the end of a slick counter, and then being the victim of a poor pass from Anderson who should have teed up the Austrian for a one-on-one.
One of Mourinho’s methods to get back into the game was to throw Marouane Fellaini forward, and the Belgian nearly reduced United’s deficit with a powerful 65th-minute header which Lukasz Fabianski did well to claw off the line.
Another was to bring on Marcus Rashford, who, returning from a three-match suspension, pulled one back for United on 71 minutes when he connected sweetly with a near-post flick from a corner which took Fabianski by surprise.
United’s comeback was nipped in the bud within three minutes when Mark Noble’s through-ball pierced the heart of the visiting defence and found the run of Arnautovic, who buried past De Gea for his fourth goal of the campaign.