A last-gasp 99th minute penalty from Alexis Mac Allister earned Brighton a 1-0 win over Manchester United on Thursday, with the result further highlighting one of United's biggest weaknesses this season.
United have a woeful record when travelling to face the other top nine Premier League teams, having picked up just a solitary point in eight fixtures. They have also conceded a whopping 28 times in those games, only scoring eight goals themselves.
United were thumped 6-3 by Manchester City at the Etihad back in October and then utterly thrashed 7-0 by Liverpool at Anfield in March. Brentford also put four past United in manager Erik ten Hag's first away game in charge last August.
Second-placed Arsenal beat United 3-2 at the Emirates in January thanks to a late winner from Eddie Nketiah, while Newcastle completed a comfortable 2-0 win at St James' Park last month. Aston Villa also beat United 3-1 in manager Unai Emery's first game in charge.
In fact, the only game away from home against another top nine team where Ten Hag's side has picked up points is last week's 2-2 draw with Tottenham, where United blew a 2-0 lead. And Thursday's defeat to Brighton means they remain two points behind third-placed Newcastle, having failed to capitalise on their game in hand.
Ten Hag was furious with his side for failing to beat Brighton, with Luke Shaw giving away the late penalty for handball. "We have to be more clinical on our chances we produced in the first half," Ten Hag fumed.
"In the end we gave away a goal and that can't happen. It is handball, maybe he is out of balance or maybe got a push in the back. My anger is more about the free kick before the corner, it was never a free kick.
"There were so many bad tackles tonight. It is not about the officials, we have to finish the chances, be more clinical and don't make the mistakes we did like in the last seconds." Shaw, meanwhile, echoed Ten Hag's comments, telling Sky Sports: "I know the problem, we know the problem: the problem is we don't score.
"In the first half we had three or four big chances that we should be scoring. I think that’s happened a lot of times this season. But then again it comes down to my mistake at the end, but the chances we had we have to be scoring these goals.
"The game is completely different if we score early on with the chances we do make. Just not clinical enough. I don't really know what else to say to that. It's disappointing I lost us a point at the end, but if you look at the first-half we could have been 3-0 up."
