Aiming to build on a 2-0 victory over Ipswich that ended a run of eight PL encounters without a win, Brighton looked dangerous from the off, and the travelling fans were soon celebrating the opener with just five minutes on the clock.
A raking long pass from Carlos Baleba set Kaoru Mitoma away, allowing the wide man to race in behind the United defence and square the ball to Yankuba Minteh for a simple finish.
No strangers to coming from behind after Amad Diallo’s midweek heroics, United were soon back on level terms when Bart Verbruggen’s loose ball led to Joshua Zirkzee being hauled down in the box by Baleba.
Bruno Fernandes had miscued an effort minutes earlier, but he made no mistake from the spot, tucking home the resultant penalty in typically calm fashion.
Level at the break after a pair of United chances were flagged for offside, Brighton appeared to be back in front soon after the restart when João Pedro benefitted from some pinball in the box, neatly slotting home from close range.
However, a VAR intervention soon cut celebrations short, with Jan Paul van Hecke adjudged to have fouled Diogo Dalot in the hectic build-up.
Undeterred, the Seagulls soon restored their lead on the hour mark thanks to Mitoma, who became the top-scoring Japanese player in PL history when he determinedly turned in Minteh’s searching cross at the back post.
The points were all but wrapped up 14 minutes from time, in large part, thanks to a calamitous goalkeeping error from André Onana, who palmed a stray cross into the path of Georginio Rutter, giving the Brighton attacker the straightforward task of passing the ball into the net.
From there, the visitors remained relatively untroubled to see out all three points.
Having now lost six of their last seven league H2Hs, United remain 13th in the league standings, one point closer to the drop zone than European qualification.
Meanwhile, back-to-back league wins lifts Fabian Hürzeler’s side to ninth and within touching distance of Europe once more.