United are Don Four! Manchester United's Premier League millionaires humiliated 4-0 by League One minnows MK Dons

Will Grigg gave MK Dons the lead after 25 minutes following an error inside the penalty area from Jonny Evans

He then doubled after the hour mark, chesting home from a Ben Reeves cross after United had lost possession

Arsenal loanee Benik Afobe put the League One side out of sight after 70 minutes, slotting past De Gea, before grabbing another with seven minutes remaining

United had earlier completed the signing of Angel di Maria from Real Madrid for a British record £59.7million 

The game marked United's first appearance in the League Cup second round since 1995 

United still haven't won a game under the Dutchman, who took over from David Moyes in the summer

In less than 50 days, Louis van Gaal has completed the bruising tumble from a World Cup semi-final in the concrete jungle of Sao Paulo to a public humiliation amid the concrete cows of Milton Keynes.

It is what Andre Villas-Boas might call a ‘negative spiral’. On a day when Manchester United spirits ought to have been lifted by the arrival of Angel di Maria for a British record transfer fee, they instead went crashing out of the Capital One Cup.

The performance was feeble and the result was perhaps United’s worst since York City won at Old Trafford in this competition, nearly 20 years ago.

Van Gaal’s first campaign is unravelling at breathtaking speed, although he made every effort to suggest he was unaffected — even unsurprised — by the pummelling.  

Instead, he scribbled autographs for fans behind the bench and kept MK Dons boss Karl Robinson waiting to shake his hand at the final whistle.

Not that Robinson will mind. As a Scouser and a staunch Liverpool fan, who said the memory will stay with him for the rest of his life, he saw his Dons outplay the visitors with slick football, even if they were given help at the start by United’s suicidal defending.

Jonny Evans, back after injury, gave the ball away for Will Grigg to open the scoring with the first of his two goals. 

Grigg scored his second with his chest, but the second of two from Benik Afobe summed up United best — he burst through weak challenges from three different defenders before smashing the ball low past David de Gea.

By failing at the first hurdle in this competition and with no European involvement, United’s season may be over in 37 more games. 

This is not going to be a gruelling season. There was no need to rest the first team and roll out the second string for what was always a tricky tie against an in-form team.

Van Gaal grumbled about two games in three days, injuries and his high-risk tactical style, but ultimately he left the club vulnerable to the upset against a team assembled for less than £250,000 and with a budget of under £3million for wages, less than a quarter of what United will pay Di Maria.

It might have been a time to field a strong side aimed at winning this competition, while ironing out some of the blatant problems which have blighted his opening three games.

Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie could have taken confidence against a team from League One, but Van Gaal treated this as an experience for young fringe players and a shop-window opportunity for those he wouldn’t mind selling to help the club offset the £59.7m Di Maria fee.

Instead, the big names were rested with a trip to Burnley in mind and yet even with 10 changes five current internationals started, and Adnan Januzaj came on when Shinji Kagawa was forced off after 20 minutes suffering with concussion.

Kagawa was not the only one dazed and confused. Evans produced a terribly careless pass, deep in defence which presented the ball to Ben Reeves, who took De Gea out of the equation with a cut-back to Grigg, who clipped the ball into an open goal. 

Robinson’s team have for some years been one of the better footballing teams in the lower leagues and their philosophy is engrained. 

They started shakily, a little stunned by the pace of Danny Welbeck, the one United player who can take any credit.  But confidence spread after Northern Ireland’s Grigg, on loan from Brentford, had fired them ahead in the 25th minute.

Dons teenager Dele Alli, strong and composed in central midfield, showed why many Premier League clubs have been monitoring his progress. 

By the time the interval arrived, United’s strikers had been neutralised and Van Gaal was deep in conversation with his assistant, Ryan Giggs.

The pattern did not change after the interval. United flickered before going two down when Michael Keane lost the ball on halfway and MK Dons broke with pace and purpose down their left. 

Reeves produced a cross for Grigg, who escaped Anderson without much effort and converted at the near post with his chest.

Grigg left the pitch to a standing ovation, to be replaced by Afobe, on loan from Arsenal, who continued the job of traumatising De Gea. 

Within minutes, he was clear of United’s back three, latching onto another pass from the excellent Reeves and driving past De Gea. 

The fourth best epitomised the woeful United defence, as Afobe muscled through flimsy challenges from Marnick Vermijl, Evans and Andreas Pereira before slamming another shot past De Gea. It sparked wild celebrations in Stadium mk, where they will always live under the ignominy of their controversial creation.

This widely unpopular club was thrashing the world’s most popular. What’s more, they deserved it, and fans serenaded the Van Gaal with the modern classic: ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’.

Little more than a decade ago there was no team in Milton Keynes and many locals filled the void by supporting Manchester United. Tuesday night may be the moment it started to change. 

‘It’s an evening we’ll never forget,’ said Robinson. Van Gaal did not seem troubled, but 6,000 United fans will never forget it either and Di Maria might be examining the small-print on the contract he signed an hour before kick-off.

Juventus contact Manchester United over Javier Hernandez after Lukas Podolski loan is thrown into doubt

Juventus have asked Manchester United if Javier Hernandez is available

Hernandez is low down in strikers' pecking order for Louis van Gaal

Juve wanted Lukas Podolski on loan from Arsenal

But Podolski could be needed by the Gunners after injury to Olivier Giroud

Juventus have made an enquiry about the availability of Javier Hernandez after Arsenal stalled on the proposed loan of Lukas Podolski to the Italian giants.

Louis van Gaal looks prepared to let the Mexico striker leave Manchester United with Angel di Maria on the verge of completing a £59.7million transfer from Real Madrid and the likes of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie remaining the Dutchman's clear first-choice strikers.

And with a top-quality defensive midfielder still desperately needed at Old Trafford, Van Gaal could yet use Juve's interest in Hernandez as bait in a move for Arturo Vidal.

Podolski looked set for a move to Turin but Olivier Giroud is now facing up to the prospect of three months out with a broken foot, meaning Arsene Wenger's forward resources have been stretched to their limits.

Theo Walcott and Yaya Sanogo are also injured, leaving Alexis Sanchez as the Gunners' only option up front - but the Chile star has struggled in the 'false nine' role in Arsenal's opening few games of the season.

Hernandez is set to start Tuesday night's Capital One Cup second round clash at MK Dons along with Danny Welbeck, another United striker whose future is uncertain.

Van Gaal looks ready to let the England forward quit the club in search of a more regular starting spot elsewhere.

But competition for Welbeck's signature will be fierce with Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull and Turkish club Galatasaray all interested.

Mario Balotelli embraces Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy and Martin Demichelis before Manchester City's win against Liverpool

• Mario Balotelli was all smiles as he caught up with former Manchester City team-mates Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy
• Mario Balotelli was at the Etihad to watch new club Liverpool face the Premier League champions
• Stevan Jovetic looked delighted inside the Manchester City tunnel with his man-of-the-match award

It wasn't the return he was hoping for, but that didn't stop Mario Balotelli sharing pleasantries with his former Manchester City team-mates.

The 24-year-old was caught on camera hugging Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy as the pair gave him a warm welcome back inside the Etihad Stadium tunnel.

Zabaleta looked especially pleased to see the Italy forward - embracing his friend on his return to England.

Despite the niceties, Liverpool's new £16million signing was afforded no favours from the duo as he watched his new side slump to a 3-1 defeat on Monday night.

Two goals from Stevan Jovetic and a Sergio Aguero strike gave the Premier League champions a 3-0 lead before Rickie Lambert scored a late consolation for the visitors.

Jovetic's double earned him the man-of-the-match award and the Montenegrin looked rather chuffed with his performance as he walked back into the tunnel after full-time.

The same couldn't be said for Frank Lampard though, who looked frustrated before kick-off as the former Chelsea star was again excluded from the matchday squad. 

Mario Balotelli will bring 'trouble' to Liverpool, jokes manager Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers jokes Mario Balotelli will bring 'trouble' to the Merseyside club

Italian striker joined Reds in £16million deal from AC Milan on Monday

Former Manchester City frontman has signed three-year deal with the club

Rodgers spoke to Sky Sports' Monday Night Football ahead of Liverpool's clash with Manchester City at The Etihad

Brendan Rodgers has warned Mario Balotelli that joining Liverpool is his last chance to sort out his behaviour.

Anfield boss Rodgers revealed he spent nearly four hours with the controversial Italian striker before completing his £16million transfer from AC Milan.

Asked what Balotelli would bring to the club, Rodgers told Sky Sports: ‘Trouble’.

But he added: ‘Look at the talent. He’s at a stage in his career where this is his chance. I’ve worked with those types of players all my life in youth coaching where I’ve never had the finished article.

‘He needs to be consistent and if he can do that he will be one hell of a player. Most players I like to look in their eye and see honesty and humility.

‘We went three-and-a-half hours talking it through. He’s at a massive club. We can help him improve his game - he’s a very bright boy and he knows this is his last chance.

‘I’m excited to work with him and improve him as a footballer as well as a person.’

Samuel Eto'o set for Everton medical as Toffees close in on former Chelsea striker

• Samuel Eto'o due to have a medical with Everton on Tuesday
• Eto'o had been lined up by Liverpool if Mario Balotelli's transfer fell through 
• Former Chelsea striker was released by the west London club this summer
• Sportsmail understands Cameroon international has had to lower his wage demands having earned £130,000-a-week at Stamford Bridge last season

Everton are closing on a deal for free agent striker Samuel Eto'o.

The 33-year-old has reached a provisional agreement on a two-year deal after re-opening talks with Everton following the collapse of his move to their neighbours Liverpool.

Eto'o has lowered his wage demands from around £130,000 a week to fit in with Everton's proposals and is due to travel to Merseyside from his Paris home on Monday ahead of a medical in the hope of completing the deal on Wednesday.

Everton had spoken to Eto'o's representatives over a fortnight ago but the player also had interest from Liverpool, AC Milan, Roma and clubs in Qatar. Yet he and his agent Claudio Vigorelli have decided Everton would be the better football option. 

Manager Roberto Martinez wants an extra striker and has also posted an interest in Manchester United's Danny Welbeck. However, the experience Eto'o brings is seen as key to aiding the development of Everton's other younger players while also giving Arouna Kone a chance to re-stake his claim for a place after injury.

Eto'o was a fall-back option for Liverpool should they have failed to sign Mario Balotelli but Everton hope he will now use that to prove he still has plenty offer the Premier League.

Meanwhile, Everton are due a £2million windfall on Tuesday with Wigan set to complete the £4million purchase of Adam Forshaw from Brentford. 

The London-based club signed Forshaw on a free transfer with the caveat that they would give Everton 50 per cent of any sell-on fee. 

Forshaw was named League One player of the year last season and has blossomed under Mark Warburton. However, former boss Uwe Rosler has played a big part in persuading him to go to Wigan. 

Manchester City 3-1 Liverpool: Stevan Jovetic at the double to down Reds as new signing Mario Balotelli looks on from the stands

• Stevan Jovetic opened the scoring in the 41st minute after Alberto Moreno's mistake inside the penalty area
• Jovetic then doubled the lead, starting and finishing a move involving Samir Nasri, after half-time
• Sergio Aguero took 23 seconds to score after coming on to make it 3-0 to City at the Etihad Stadium
• Rickie Lambert's scrambled rebound in the box went in off Pablo Zabaleta for an own goal late on
• Mario Balotelli was in attendance at the Etihad Stadium hours after completing his £16million move to Liverpool 

It took 23 seconds. Sergio Aguero stepped onto the pitch and, 23 seconds later, the match was over. As Manchester City’s third goal hit the net, Liverpool were done. So close last season, the gulf between the two clubs looked significant on Monday night. There, in Aguero’s goal, Manchester City’s power was encapsulated.

It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate around the body, but City’s power in the second-half might have frozen it in Liverpool’s veins. No other club in the Premier League has these options. There are some useful teams about this season, but not with City’s irresistible strength in depth. 

To replace David Silva with Jesus Navas, and Edin Dzeko – who may be out for a short while with an injury to his left thigh – with Aguero, is not an option open to any manager bar Manuel Pellegrini. That the two arrivals then combined to take the game beyond Liverpool’s reach merely underlined those incredible resources. Manchester City have a great team – but if you don’t like it, don’t worry, they’ve got another almost as good. 

The second-half display, certainly, was as impressive as it was ominous, as were the bald facts of this victory. Liverpool are the third biggest spending club in the world this summer, after Manchester United and Barcelona, yet they were undone by City’s fourth choice striker. 

Not Aguero – he was merely the icing on the cake – but Stevan Jovetic, the Montenegrin purchased from Fiorentina in 2013 but as yet thwarted by injury and a queue of expensive strikers during his time in Manchester.

Not anymore, it would seem. Paul Scholes, among others, has been calling this as Jovetic’s year and his two goals against such well-fancied opposition, suggested he may be right. 

It is not the first time Jovetic has tormented Liverpool either. In 2009, he scored both goals as Fiorentina helped to dump them out of the Champions League – the last time they competed in the competition before this season.

Back then, a teenage Jovetic was making his name as one of Europe’s most promising young strikers – now he is a real force, still only 24, but coming to the peak of his powers. He took his two goals magnificently, and the second was quite exceptional.

Liverpool enjoyed a promising first-half, and Joe Hart was kept busy in the City goal, even if most of his work was collecting and mopping up, rather than being forced into saves. 

The problem was that City have a defence which, at its best, is capable of keeping dangerous opponents at bay for long periods, while some in the Liverpool ranks are still familiarising themselves with Premier League football at elite level. 

Left-back Alberto Moreno, for instance, was playing his first game following a £15m transfer from Sevilla, and it showed. 

After a solid start, he was at fault for City’s opening goal, scored after 41 minutes, surprised by the sheer pace and physicality of the move. This is a league in which even a moment’s pause can be fatal, and Moreno blinked 

After a dormant spell lasting close to half an hour, City burst into life. Samir Nasri played arguably the finest pass of the match to Silva from the right, and the Spaniard held it up superbly before laying the ball back to the onrushing Jovetic. 

He sped past Moreno who appeared startled by his simple initiative and, before Dejan Lovren had time to adequately cover, Jovetic struck the ball with venom through the legs of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. 

It was a goal like a lightning strike, explosive, powerful and devastating. Liverpool had plenty of possession and some nice approaches to goal, but nothing like this. When they hit top gear, City were at a different level. 

It was Jovetic’s second, however, that caught the eye and imagination in equal measure. It was a 19 pass move, which is in itself impressive, but the final three exchanges were the flourish that brought the crowd to its feet.

Jovetic fed the ball to Nasri, and made an intuitive run for the return pass, which arrived perfectly and was dispatched with a beautiful finality. Not everything may change around Manchester City this season – maybe not their final league position, if they continue to build on this – but the pecking order of the strikers is likely to be fluid.

When Dzeko suffered his injury after 68 minutes, the fans were initially torn between saluting his manly effort, and delighting in Aguero’s return.  

By the time Navas had taken out five Liverpool players with one pass, and Aguero had fired the ball past Mignolet with his first touch of the game, their minds were made up. This was a good news day, no doubt about it – although the fans of 19 other clubs may beg to differ.

Mario Balotelli or not, Liverpool have their work cut out from here. Sunday brings a visit to Tottenham Hotspur, the early league leaders and a club looking to break into at least the top four under Mauricio Pochettino. 

Lose there and it will be impossible to view their title claims favourably, and they have already drifted out to 16-1. Tottenham under Andre Villas-Boas last season showed how hard it was to lose a great player and adequately assimilate a large group of replacements.  

Liverpool are now trying to prove that selling Elvis and buying The Beatles can work, but while the first-half showed signs of a tunefulness emerging, there was little melody beyond half-time. 

Losing your best players, no matter the fee, is rarely successful – not for Tottenham with Gareth Bale, and maybe not for Liverpool with Luis Suarez, although he would have been banned from this match anyway. Liverpool had good possession but lacked the magic that happened when City got close to goal. Suarez was a magician.

A late 83rd minute own goal from Pablo Zabaleta made the scoreline looked closer than the reality. Hart produced a brilliant save from a Rickie Lambert header and was desperately unlucky that the ball was then bundled over the line by his team-mate. 

Lambert had another chance wasted almost immediately, and Daniel Sturridge went close in the first-half, too, yet Liverpool lacked the clinical touch demonstrated by Manchester City. 

Every club likes to think it will grow stronger as the season progresses, and this may well be true of Liverpool, and Manchester United. But when the champions say there is more where this came from, that message is ominous. Nobody is waiting for the cavalry to arrive at City. It is already here, and on the charge.

Arsenal fear Olivier Giroud will miss three months with broken foot, as Gunners weigh up swoop for Loic Remy

• Olivier Giroud went down injured against Everton on Saturday
• A first scan was inconclusive, so the Frenchman will be tested again
• Arsenal fear the striker may have broken his foot 
• A period out for Giroud could force Arsenal to sign QPR's Loic Remy
• Giroud is Arsenal's first-choice striker, and will certainly miss the crunch Champions League qualifier against Besiktas on Wednesday  
• Forward Lukas Podolski was set to leave the club, but may now stay

Arsenal have been left sweating on the fitness of Olivier Giroud after the striker was sent for a second ankle scan.

Manager Arsene Wenger may be forced to revive his interest in Loic Remy or scrap the £10million sale of Lukas Podolski if the French international striker is ruled out for any length of time.

Giroud, who sustained the injury during the closing stages of Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Everton, originally believed he could be fit for Wednesday’s make-or-break Champions League qualifier against Besiktas.

But Sportsmail understands the 27-year-old will miss at least the next two weeks, putting him out of the clash against Slaven Bilic’s side and Sunday’s visit to Leicester, and there are even fears he has suffered a broken foot, which would rule him out for months rather than weeks.

An initial scan failed to clear up the extent of the damage and Giroud was sent for a second examination after the inflammation of the joint had fully subsided.

A long term lay-off for Giroud, the club’s first-choice striker, would leave the club desperately short of centre-forward options and force Wenger’s hand in the transfer market.

If the Frenchman is sidelined for a sustained period of time, then Wenger could revive their interest in Queens Park Rangers striker Loic Remy.

The striker was close to joining the Gunners earlier this summer, with the north London club willing to meet his £8.5million release clause.

But Arsenal’s refusal to match his £90,000-per-week wage demands saw the deal fall through.

Giroud’s injury could also force the club into a rethink over Lukas Podolski’s future.

The Germany international wanted to leave the club in search of first-team football, and Wenger has given him the green light to depart so long as a club meets his £10million asking price.

But a serious injury to Giroud could yet see Podolski, who is wanted by Juventus, Wolfsburg and Galatasary, stay at the Emirates Stadium.

The club were faced with a similar scenario last season when dealing with Jack Wilshere’s broken foot.

Following a 50/50 challenge with Daniel Agger while playing for England in March, the midfielder was given the all clear during an initial scan on his ankle.

But a second scan showed up a hairline fracture to his left foot.

And the club will wait for clarification on Giroud’s second scan before fully disclosing the details of his injury.

Arsene Wenger will address the issue at Tuesday’s pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday's Besiktas clash.

Giroud’s fitness isn’t the only selection headache for Wenger, who will also be without the suspended Aaron Ramsey following his red card in the first leg, and captain Mikel Arteta who is still suffering with an ankle injury.

Arteta is expected to be available for the Barclays Premier League showdown against Manchester City on September 13, while Yaya Sanogo is expected to return to the squad for the clash against Besiktas after a hamstring problem.

But it is Giroud’s injury that is causing Wenger the biggest concern.