The upshot appeared to be Dean Henderson had deliberately kicked the ball into touch to allow Marcus Rashford to be replaced and, as United had sportingly returned the ball to Crystal Palace when James McCarthy was forced to hobble off in midweek, maybe there was the thought City should play it back to the keeper.
However, Mason Greenwood was not quite ready to come on and it became clear the Blues would instead look to start another move in their ultimately fruitless pursuit of redressing a two-goal deficit.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Pep Guardiola exchanged a few cross words but were later seen embracing after the final whistle when mulling over the finer points of United's excellent 2-0 triumph.