(Fernandes 40′, 61′ pen, 68′, Greaves 56′ og, Mbeumo 82′ | Davis 29′, Akpom 90’+11)

OLD TRAFFORD — Manchester United’s attack, so lifeless at Hull City last weekend, was sumptuous once Ipswich Town were forced to match United’s stretching of the game.

A crowd that waited to be impressed certainly reacted positively once there was evidenced reason for faith. The second half saw a storm erupt over Old Trafford. Sometimes nature writes your metaphors for you

United stared consecutive defeats against promoted clubs to start a season in the face and laughed in it.

Forget Hull, the season starts now. Michael Carrick promised that last weekend did not mean everything was broken. On that point at least, we must believe him.

The most pressing question about the Carrick era (permanent edition) is whether he can avoid the flaw that undermined his Middlesbrough tenure, namely that his teams concede too many clear chances and that it often takes only one or two passes through a midfield to create them.

At best that jury is still out on that point. Ipswich scored from one counter-attack. Julio Enciso missed another one-on-one in the first half. Daizen Maeda came close to scoring before Ipswich took the lead.

This is a new-look attack for a promoted club – Carrick must guard against becoming a pattern.

But the theory, as it was at Middlesbrough, is that Carrick’s teams are threatening enough to overshadow those flaws. They excel at scoring goals in clutches and they become rampant during periods of matches to the point of irrepressibility. We saw that at Old Trafford too.

“It was a chaotic game with chances everywhere because it was such an open game,” Carrick said back in 2023 when he was relatively new on Teesside.

That is the natural style of these matches: end-to-end basketball affairs during which excellence in the moments determine the outcome. 

You can see the point. Pick a central midfield of Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans with Bruno Fernandes ahead of them and you can be certain that there will be lots to purr over in possession and less pressing than is ideal. Mainoo’s recovery of the ball was exceptional for the most part, certainly beyond what Thomas Tuchel gives him credit for.

There is little to be learned from Fernandes’ creativity in open play, but far more from how Marcus Rashford flourished on the left wing. There was an intent to take on Dara O’Shea that is directly proportional to Rashford’s confidence – we know how he tends to turn back to pass when things aren’t going his way.

Without the ball, there was something entirely new. The accusation – long-term in its application – is that Rashford offers insufficient tracking back and defensive work to account for the attacking returns in an age when the best wingers are either super-productive or do both attacking and defending.

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This gave hope of another new start. Rashford’s three tackles were only bettered by one other United player.

There was a moment in the first half where Rashford lost possession in a duel with Abdul Fatawu, who sprinted away from him. Rashford sprinted with him and, when a teammate forced Fatawu to slow down, it was he who nicked the ball away. Old Trafford roared as if it were a goal.

Two games: one wretched, one involving 45 minutes of cheers and whoops. We should probably get used to that United norm, a team involved in chaotic encounters who occasionally beat a better team and occasionally lose to a worse one. I don’t know if that will be good enough and I don’t know how you can either. But it’s going to be great fun finding out.