Tyrone Marshall, senior football writer at the Manchester Evening News, believes that Manchester United supporters will be underwhelmed by their side’s start to the Premier League campaign.

The Red Devils’ 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend left them 10th in the table with nine points from their opening seven fixtures.

However, Marshall insists that manager Erik ten Hag will be given time at Old Trafford following last season’s success that saw United lift the Carabao Cup and finish third in the league.

Manchester United are 10th in the Premier League, with three wins and four defeats from their first seven games. What have you made of what you’ve seen so far?

It’s been disappointing, I can’t sugar-coat it. There have been too many defeats in there, they are not playing well enough, they are too open at the back and not scoring enough goals. I think even Erik ten Hag would say it’s been hugely underwhelming.

United have lost six times in all competitions and won four games. The victory at Wolves at the start of the season wasn’t convincing, Forest wasn’t great, they had to grind it out against Burnley and then, when they beat Palace in the League Cup, it was against a much-changed team - very different to the one that beat them last weekend.

They have not had a significant win so far this season and it has been a very disappointing start.

It’s still very early on in the season, but after United’s worst start in 34 years, is the pressure beginning to ramp up on Ten Hag?

I’m not sure it’s starting to ramp up on him, but I think the pressure, generally, is ramping up. I think he has got enough credit in the bank from last season. They did very well last season to finish third, especially after the start they had, which included that 4-0 defeat at Brentford.

The way they recovered from that to finish third, win a trophy and reach the FA Cup final gave him a lot of credit. But certainly, this is the hardest spell he’s had as United manager.

Fans have seen this enough over the last 10 or 11 years to know that things like this can spiral out of control very quickly and there have been a lot of injuries and some off-field issues.

There are some concerning things for Ten Hag to deal with. This is more his team than it was last season and they’ve gone backwards. You can’t ignore the injuries as there are so many of them, but the team has gone backwards and certain players are underperforming. I think there are clearly things for him to fix, but he’s not facing any major questions at the moment.

How important is it going to be for United to challenge on multiple fronts in order to try and generate momentum where they can?

We saw what winning the Carabao Cup did for them last season and though that’s clearly their fourth priority, winning it last year was huge because they hadn’t won a trophy for so long. It’s in the club’s DNA to win trophies, so if they win it again this season, it’s another positive for Ten Hag.

United played a pretty strong team last midweek. They were stronger than Palace were in that game in terms of the number of changes and that did the job, got them through and they’ve got another home game now in the next round, so I presume they will go strong again against Newcastle.

The Champions League is the big one as they worked so hard to get back into it. It was a strange game at Bayern. On paper, it looks close at 4-3, but it never really felt close. They started well for the first 25 minutes, but after that they were second best by a long way, especially in the second half. It felt like a thriller that was never really a thriller.

So often, since Alex Ferguson retired, United get into the Champions League and, the season after, they don’t get into the Champions League or finish in the top four. It’s huge that they don’t follow that pattern again.

Which player should Brentford fans keep an eye on at Old Trafford?

The player United fans are enjoying watching at the moment is Alejandro Garnacho, but he probably won’t start and tends to do better off the bench. He’s the one forward that is getting fans off their seats; the one exciting attacker they have got.

Marcus Rashford was brilliant last season but has been really poor this season.

There is a lot of excitement around Rasmus Højlund, but it’s yet to really click for him and that was always a deal on potential, rather than a guarantee of goals.

How is Ten Hag likely to set up at the weekend?

It will probably be the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 he normally goes with. He’s changed it a bit this season because they have had so many issues, especially on the right wing, with Antony and Jadon Sancho being unavailable. The former is back in training now and, by the time of the Brentford game, he will probably have had enough training to be ready to start.

What’s your score prediction for this one?

It’s a difficult one; Brentford have had a tricky start and United are really tough to call at the moment. I will go for a home win, but I could see it being 1-0 or 2-1 and a pretty nervy game.