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| Rashford wheels away to celebrate his winner with the away fans |
In the end, football justice was delivered at the KCOM stadium. Manchester United had no business looking for a goal deep into injury time against an admittedly well organised Hull City side. At 29 attempts on goal, United had shown enough attacking intent to deserve what came from Rashford's stabbed in winner. Indeed, some United fans still suffering under the Louis van Gaal stigma will have struggled to come to terms with a 0-0 score line after so many attempts on goal.
Thankfully though, the side showed the character and desire to press on to the last minute. That in itself is an important observation. Despite the schizophrenia of the last couple of years, it is important to note that United have still got that never say die attitude about them. United did salvage a few games late last season but it was in the Cup competitions. They were not doing what they did on Saturday in the league and as such lost so many points out of that character flaw.
Every top side will have games like that on a given Saturday. Not all will come away with three points. It has therefore become cliche to suggest that such wins are the stuff of Champions to be. It's a prospect that will be put to the ultimate domestic test in just under 10 days.
In keeping with his methods of keeping a winning team, Jose named an unchanged line-up, meaning that Henrick Mikitaryan was yet again left out of the team. The Armenian did come on for the last 25 minutes or so and by the end of the game we learned that he will fit in just perfectly with the rest of the attack. We new that he was such a fine player in possession and so was never going to be fazed by being closed down or finding little pockets of space. With Fellaini ruled out for a month, Henrick should get more opportunity to start from the off.
United have not really set the world alight with their performances so far. That said, the improvement is marked from the days of Louis van Gaal and David Moyes. The defence though has been nothing short of imperious. Indeed the one facet United can claim to have over their title rivals is that their backline has settled in much better than anyone else's. That improvement can greatly be attributed to Eric Bailly who was awarded his third Man of the Match award for the club in four games. The Ivorian has proved to be the perfect foil for the intelligent Daley Blind who continues to use his game reading ability to make forwards appear mentally disabled. Admittedly, United finished last season with the joint best defence in the league. But not with David De Gea having his goal pummelled with shot after shot to such extents that he merited the Club's Player of the Year award again.
The difference this time round is that De Gea has been required to stop just a couple of shots per game so far. A solid base of midfield and a strong centre of defence has shielded him from the asteroids he had to deal with last season and before that.
Victory at Hull ensured that the club have now made their best start to a league season since 2011/12 when the club lost the title on goal difference to Manchester City. Perhaps it is a touch of de ja vu that both clubs are only separated by goal difference ahead of the first International break. What is for certain is that the next round of fixtures will include the most anticipated Manchester derby at least since the 2012 derby decided the destiny of the league title.
With almost two weeks until the D-Day, the build up will take quite the while. For United though, August has proved that this season at least will be different from the last three. Most fans will take that.