The crushing defeat at Brentford left scars on Manchester United and figured prominently as Erik ten Hag’s appraisal of victory at Southampton revolved around strong foundations, solidity, organisation and spirit.
Lessons learned was the manager’s theme and, encouragingly for United, it had penetrated the minds of his players as they performed with their sleeves rolled up, ready for a hard shift at St Mary’s.
‘The Brentford game was a big reality check,’ said midfielder Scott McTominay, the epitome of this mentality. ‘It takes a lot of balls to come back from that as a team, with all the criticism every player gets.