Manchester United F.C. 9–0 Southampton F.C.

While Manchester United had a full squad available heading into the match, Southampton were missing several players through injury, including Ibrahima Diallo, Michael Obafemi, Oriol Romeu, Mohammed Salisu, Will Smallbone, Nathan Tella, Jannik Vestergaard, Theo Walcott and Kyle Walker-Peters.[11] Southampton made four changes from their 1–0 loss to Aston Villa three days earlier; in the absence of central midfielders Diallo, Romeu and Smallbone, manager Ralph Hasenhüttl gave a full debut to Swiss 19-year-old Alex Jankewitz, who had come on as a late substitute Aston Villa. Right-back Walker-Peters had not played since Southampton's 1–0 FA Cup fourth round win over Arsenal and was deputised by Kayne Ramsay, as Yan Valery had been loaned to Birmingham City before the transfer deadline the previous day. Their other changes saw Moussa Djenepo and Ché Adams come in for Walcott and Nathan Redmond, who was on the bench.[12] Southampton included youngster Will Ferry on the bench.[13] Manchester United's only change to their starting line-up saw Mason Greenwood come in for Paul Pogba, while Brandon Williams, who had been a candidate to go out on loan during the transfer window, replaced Axel Tuanzebe on the bench.[14][15]

The referee for the match was Mike Dean from Cheshire. He was supported by assistant referees Darren Cann and Ian Hussin, fourth official Lee Mason, and a video assistant referee team of Graham Scott and Stephen Child.[16]

In the second minute of the match, Southampton midfielder Alex Jankewitz, on his first start for the club, was sent off for a high challenge on Scott McTominay. It was only the fourth time that a player had been sent off within the first two minutes of a Premier League game.[1] Now with a man advantage, Manchester United opened the scoring in the 18th minute, when right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka met a cross from Luke Shaw at the back post.[1] Marcus Rashford doubled United's lead seven minutes later, before forcing an own goal from Jan Bednarek in the 34th minute.[1] Edinson Cavani added a fourth goal for the home side five minutes later, and it could have been 5–0 before half-time when referee Mike Dean awarded a penalty for a foul on Cavani by Kayne Ramsay; however, the decision was overturned by the VAR, who deemed the foul to have taken place outside the penalty area.[1]

At half-time, Manchester United brought on Anthony Martial and Donny van de Beek in place of Cavani and Shaw.[1] Ché Adams thought he had pulled a goal back for Southampton eight minutes into the second half, only to have it ruled narrowly offside by the video assistant referee.[1] The score stayed at 4–0 for much of the second half, before Martial scored his first goal in nine games in the 69th minute.[1] McTominay scored United's sixth with a low shot from outside the penalty area two minutes later.[1] United were eventually awarded a penalty in the 87th minute when Martial was denied a goalscoring opportunity in the penalty area by Bednarek, who was sent off, reducing Southampton to nine men; Bruno Fernandes converted the spot-kick to make the score 7–0.[1] Martial then added United's eighth goal in the 90th minute, the first time he had scored more than once in a game since his hat-trick against Sheffield United in June 2020, before fellow substitute Daniel James, who had come on for Rashford in the second half, completed the 9–0 scoreline in the final minute of second-half stoppage time.[1]