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In keeping with Manchester United’s season, this was not easy.

They looked ordinary at times, one-paced and prone to defensive uncertainty. Goalkeeper David de Gea looked like an accident waiting to happen and his nervousness spread to the likes of Harry Maguire and Nemanja Matic.

But, though they lived dangerously at times, the United that finished this season is different in one crucial way to the one that started it. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team – thanks to the improvement in Anthony Martial and young Mason Greenwood and the purchase of Bruno Fernandes – now have the ability to hurt teams in an instant. They did not do that during the uncertain days of autumn and early winter but they do it now and they did it here.