The game kicked off at 6:15 IST at Britannia Stadium as the home team took lead in the first half, itself. Bojan scored in the 19th minute and gave the hosts an early lead after Manchester United messed up at the back. The lead soon doubled as Arnautovic scored the second for Stoke. He scored an unstoppable drive from outside the box. The two goals were enough to lead the home team to a victory. Manchester United remained poor in their performance as they failed to win, again. The player ratings are as follows,
Stoke City
Jack Butland 8.5- Kept a cleansheet, made an important strike from Mata in injury time.
Glen Johnson 6.5- Marked Memphis well in the first half, stopped Blind, however missed on Martial in the latter half of the game.
Ryan Shawcross 8- Defended well even when Rooney was brought on, was on hand to clean up an attack when Johnson fell asleep and allowed Martial inside.
Philipp Wollschield 6- decent performance, bonded well with Shawcross in the defense.
Erik Pieters 6- Took a knock in the first-half after an accidental collision with Young, returned back but was struggling.
Glen Whelan 5- Replaced at the break by Marco van Ginkel in what appeared to be an injury-forced substitution.
Geoff Cameron 6.5- Nothing outstanding from him, rather decent from him, could have been better.
Xherdan Shaqiri 8- Linked up well with the two in front of him, good game for the lad.
Ibrahim Afellay 6- Was average apart from the moment of magic where he jinked through two challenges and laid on a chance for Arnautovic, only to balloon the ball off-target when it came back to him.
Marko Arnautovic 9- Scored the second goal, looked very lively on the pitch.
Bojan Krkic 9- Scored the very first goal of the game, almost set up the 3rd goal too.
Manchester United
David de Gea 6- Conceded twice, stopped a cross from Diouf late on when Arnautovic was ready and waiting to fire in.
Ashley Young 5- Poor defending, struggled defensively, nearly gave Rooney a chance to score, though the striker turned out to be in an offside position.
Chris Smalling 5- Made an important clearance when the ball was pin-balling around the United area, conceded a foul on Diouf.
Phil Jones 4- Terrible performance, horribly exposed when Arnautovic broke through with the chance he wasn’t able to convert.
Daley Blind 3- Exposed as Arnautovic and Bojan targeted the left side of United’s defence with ample help coming from Johnson, and he summed up United’s performance when he kicked the ball against his standing leg when attempting to cross is seconds before half-time.
Michael Carrick 4- Failed to protect back four, worst performance under LvG.
Ander Herrera 5- Proved of no use even after given the chance to start over Rooney, Had a chance to score from Mata’s cross, but heading has never been his strong point.
Juan Mata 6- Wasted a late chance for a consolation as Butland saved from a poor close-range effort, not a good game for the Spaniard.
Maroune Fellaini 5- Clueless whatsoever, looked more of a hindrance than a help.
Memphis Depay 2- Responsible for the first goal, disastrous performance, shambolic.
Anthony Martial 6- Average game, not what one expects from a youngster who’s been bought for £36m.