How Man United Ended Up With Their Shortest Season Since 1915 — And What the Consequences Could Be

It will be Premier League success or no success for Manchester United in the 2025/26 season.

United lost 2-1 at home to Brighton on Sunday as they exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle. That defeat came 137 days after the Red Devils were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by a shock defeat at Grimsby.

Danny Welbeck was the star of the show at Old Trafford on Sunday, scoring against his boyhood club for an eighth time. Welbeck now has a better scoring record against Man United than he did for them, based on goals per game.

Man United’s worst domestic cup campaign since 1981/82

Not since the 1981/82 season had Man United lost their opening games in both the League Cup and FA Cup.

Back then they were beaten by Watford and Tottenham. United finished third in the old First Division that season. However, a repeat of that feat seems unlikely this term, with United currently seventh in the Premier League — 11 points below Aston Villa in third — with 17 rounds of fixtures remaining.

Those 17 fixtures are now all United have left to focus on for the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign.

Man United set for shortest season since 1914/15 in terms of total games

United’s early cup exits, coupled with their absence from European football, mean that they will play just 40 matches this season. Indeed, no professional team in England will play fewer games than United.

United’s fixture list this season will be exactly 50% lighter than it was last season, when they played 60 games in total. Fifteen of those matches came in the UEFA Europa League, including a 1-0 defeat by Tottenham in the final.

United also reached the fifth round of both domestic cups in 2024/25, as well as competing in the Community Shield — which they lost to Manchester City on penalties.

Over the previous six campaigns, United have averaged 59.17 games per season. Therefore, coming down to 40 is a huge drop.

In fact, not since 1914/15 have United played fewer than 40 games in a season. There was no League Cup back then, while United exited the FA Cup by losing 1-0 to The Wednesday in round one.

United lost 18 of their 38 league games in 1914/15, finishing 18th in the First Division. Only Chelsea and Tottenham were below United, who avoided relegation by just two points.

Man United games by season

Season	League	FA / EFL Cup	Europe	Other	Total
2025/26	38	2	0	0	40
2024/25	38	6	15	1	60
2023/24	38	8	6	0	52
2022/23	38	12	12	0	62
2021/22	38	3	8	0	59
2020/21	38	8	15	0	61
2019/20	38	11	12	0	61
1914/15	38	1	0	0	39

What are the consequences of Man United playing so few games?

One obvious problem that comes from playing so few matches is the resulting lack of income. Matchdays are a big deal financially for United, so playing just 20 home games — compared to 30 last season — will leave the club significantly short-changed.

Another issue with such a condensed fixture list is that it can be very hard to balance game time and keep fringe players happy.

However, there have been multiple examples in recent years of Premier League teams thriving with a short season.

Leicester in 2015/16 and Chelsea the following season were crowned champions of England during campaigns in which they did not compete in Europe.

The Foxes played just 43 games in total during their stunning title-winning season.

While there is close to zero chance of United winning the Premier League this term, it could be argued that their fixture list becoming less cluttered has actually helped them improve to some extent.

United finished 15th in the Premier League last season, averaging just 1.11 points per game.

After 21 rounds of Premier League fixtures this term, the Red Devils sit seventh and have so far recorded 1.52 points per game.

That significant upturn was not enough to save Ruben Amorim, though. Amorim was recently sacked after recording the lowest win-rate of any Man United boss since 1972.

Darren Fletcher was put in charge of Man United on an interim basis following Amorim’s departure. A 2-2 draw with Burnley followed by an FA Cup loss to Brighton are unlikely to have boosted his hopes of keeping the job full time.

Current Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is understood to be Man United’s top target in their search to replace Amorim.