As showers gave way to sunshine around the Etihad, and another game was rapidly unravelling for Ruben Amorim's Manchester United, the television cameras panned to the directors' box and focussed on Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
United's minority owner rubbed his face wearily and wore the look of man who had just splashed £236million against the wall and was watching it trickle down the drain.
Alongside him, chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, once of this parish as employees of Manchester City, must have been shifting uncomfortably in their seats in case Ratcliffe tapped them on the shoulder and asked just what on earth is going on.