IT WOULD be a wild stretch to declare it a wonder of restoration, but there were signs – pre-lockdown – of Manchester United emerging from a broken place. Bruno Fernandes had brilliantly stormed the Old Trafford imagination to a point where Paul Scholes speculated that United might even have unearthed their own David Silva. At the very least, the Premier League Player of the Month for February – his first nine games yielded three goals and four assists – triggered a revitalising mood swing. In a Premier League six-game form table, United sit below Burnley and level with Sheffield United. Review the entire sweep of Solskjaer's first full season and it shows United some 35 points adrift of Liverpool and struggling to shake the infinitely poorer resourced Wolves and Sheffield United from their shirt-tails.

Source: Irish Independent June 15, 2020 15:00 UTC