Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes was sent off as his side suffered a 2-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday – their fourth defeat in their last five Premier League games.

Two minutes after the break, Fernandes received a second yellow card and, as the Boxing Day fog began to swirl over Molineux, United’s gloom deepened when Matheus Cunha scored straight from a corner.

It was an embarrassing moment for United keeper André Onana and one that highlighted the club’s plight as it languishes in the bottom half of the table.

The Wolves held on for eight minutes of added time against the ten men and Hwang Hee-chan ensured absolute security with virtually the last shot after a counter-attack, making it a happy first home game for new coach Vitor Pereira, who made his debut for Regent with an away win at Leicester City.

The win lifted Wolves to 17th place with 15 points from 18 games from their last three, while Ruben Amorim’s United ended the day in 14th place with 22 points.

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Cunha was the best player on the pitch, scoring a strange opening goal and then providing the assist for Hwang that sparked home celebrations.

For United coach Amorim it was further proof of the magnitude of the position he has taken on after replacing Erik ten Hag.

He now has the undesirable record of having lost the fewest games by a Manchester United manager, having lost four Premier League games – his seven are significantly fewer than Ten Hag’s 13.

However, much of the focus will be on Fernandes. After being booked in the first half, the Portuguese unnecessarily caught Nélson Semedo, earning him a red card and leaving his already toothless team at the mercy of the wolves.

The home side thought they had taken the lead shortly afterwards when Jorgen Strand Larsen headed Semedo’s cross into the goal, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

But Wolves took the lead in the strangest of circumstances when Cunha took a dangerously curved corner and Onana was nowhere to be seen as the ball ended up in the net.

United’s poor performance was summed up by striker Rasmus Hojlund’s failure to touch Wolves’ penalty area before being substituted midway through the second half.