Football in England doesn’t usually pause at this time of year, with the 2019/20 winter break – when we went a fortnight without a game and the squad headed for a training camp in Marbella – a notable exception.
If, like United, teams remain in contention in the latter stages of the FA Cup and Champions League, the period between the November and March international breaks is usually relentless.
However, this year another international break has been slotted in and it’s because of this that the top flight has taken a breath.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused huge disruption to fixture schedules in 2020 and 2021, with games needing to be postponed across the world.