After a first goal in 189 days in the win at Southampton, some players seem to inspire these feelings and mean more

The sun was just trying to break through as Manchester United took their curtain call here: a weak and hazy sunlight, an autumn-adjacent sunlight, sunlight if it had been taught how to press by Ole Gunnar Solskjær. But sunlight all the same. And as perfunctorily routine as this win seemed in retrospect, days like these are actually pretty rare for United, a club where the roof always seems to be leaking, even when it isn’t raining.

This was – by way of illustration – only their second away win in the Premier League since February, their biggest win on the road since November, their biggest league win against Southampton since 2001, the year they left the Dell. And yes, getting to that stage required half an hour of pure inertia, a saved penalty and a pretty complete implosion from a home side that failed to register a single shot in the last hour of play. But finally, United had carved themselves out a little breathing space.