At the very end, as fans headed for the exit, Jason Wilcox chuckled as he shared a brief conversation with Sir Dave Brailsford.
Wilcox, United’s newly-appointed technical director, was watching on at Old Trafford for the first time since his appointment became official last week.
The content of his conversation remains a mystery. But what he saw was, again, a team besieged by problems, but one that has its very own superhero in captain Bruno Fernandes. It is scary to think just where they would find themselves this season without him.
‘For all the chaos that surrounds Manchester United,’ Micah Richards pondered on Match of the Day last night, ‘I just think for a player to keep his composure and be able to perform at the level which is needed is fantastic.