It was a day when Manchester United defended in numbers, when they sacrificed all attacking ambition in pursuit of something – anything – to stop a rot that had claimed the former manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and sent their Premier League season into meltdown.
It was a long way from pretty but, watched from afar by Ralf Rangnick – the manager who is set to step in until the end of the season – the team got what they wanted.
