Just consider the context: United had sacked Roy Keane, their captain, sold their greatest goalscorer since Denis Law in Van Nistelrooy, and their two prodigious forwards had got involved in an almighty row at the World Cup.
United were without a title in three years, Chelsea had won the last two, and just signed Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, a world-class midfielder and striker. David Gill promised United two world-class additions and they got Michael Carrick and Tomasz Kuszczak.
The punchline is United won their first league in four years and were top for all but two weeks. The football they played in the first half of 2006-07 was some of the best of Ferguson's epoch; Carrick and Scholes conducted play from deep, Giggs was revitalised on the left, Ronaldo was becoming world-class on the right and Rooney was a perfect foil for Louis Saha.