When Southampton won the reverse fixture in November, they moved to the top of the Premier League.
Ralph Hasenhuttl was spoken of as a top-six manager-in-waiting in the days that followed. Saints were at the summit just over a year on from their 9-0 home defeat by Leicester. It was, we said, reward for the faith maintained in their innovative Austrian boss.
So does the subsequent slide to 12th, including another 9-0 humiliation at Manchester United last week, render November’s eulogy misplaced?
Absolutely not. It should be a reminder of the job Hasenhuttl did in taking a middling Premier League squad from their lowest ebb to the top of the table.