For their part, Man Utd have responded superbly to their 3-0 defeat to Liverpool. A win over Southampton got them back on track in the Premier League before a 7-0 hammering of in the league cup helped to get some of their strikers on the board with Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford both scoring.

Erik Ten Hag can see only improvement and great strides forward, although five games in, Manchester United are 11th with seven points and strong indications that the kind of volatility that has characterised their last decade still haunts them.