Solomon Rondon scored the winner as Manchester United suffered defeat to West Bromwich on Sunday. LVG’s men lost ground on the race to finish in the top four as they couldn’t manage to get three points against the Baggies. The absence of the Spanish playmaker, Juan Mata had an effect on the team as a whole, after he was sent off for two bookable offenses in the first half. The first booking was for blocking Darren Fletcher’s free-kick and the second was for fouling the Scotsman on the edge of the Baggies area.

Here are three things we learned from the match:

Silly Mistake From The Spaniard:

A player of his experience and stature isn’t expected to be sent off, and that too in the first half itself. It changed the complexity of the game and ruined it as a show.

Mata was not fancied by Mourinho at Chelsea due to his lack of the training back and tackling. It is learnt that Mata still hasn’t learnt to tackle like a professional after scything down Fletcher which got him his second booking.

Rondon In Form

The West Brom striker has now scored four goals in six League games, having failed to score in his previous nine.

The Venezuela international is proving to be an excellent asset to the Baggies. With his pace and strength, he is able to hold up while his teammates push-up front and also perform well when under-pressure. Rondon is performing much better since Tony Pulis opted to play two upfront and recalled Saido Berahino.

Varela Should Be The First Choice:

Guillermo Varela had been getting chances to play in the starting XI in the absence of the first-choice players due to injuries. The Uruguayan has some promising display in his last few matches, contributing to United’s short winning streak.

Varela may not be as defensively solid as Darmian, but he offers so much more going forward for United and should be starting almost every match.

After being replaced by Darmian against West Bromwich, it showed why Varela should be United’s first choice right-back player. Darmian wasn’t able to get into the game with his lack of composure and poor first touches. The Italian defender was also to be blamed to for Rondon’s goal as he could’ve done more to stop the cross which led to it.