Just when Manchester United thought it was safe to feel positive again, just when we thought there would be a Manchester derby worthy of the name, this was an annihilation so brutal, so one-sided, that Erik ten Hag was plunged back into his worst nightmare.
If the United manager thought that being 4-0 down before-half-time at Brentford in August was an horrific aberration, never to be repeated, here he was just seven weeks later in the same deep, dark hole.
Only this time Manchester City threatened to make it even worse for the Dutchman.