That bond and togetherness helped the team overcome some big disappointments to qualify for the Champions League for the third-successive season with a third place finish in the Premier League in 2017-18. It’s only the third time in the Club’s history we’ve finished in the league’s top three for three seasons on the trot after 1949-50 to 51-52 and 1959-60 to 62-63.
The stats stack up for our second-best season of the Premier League era behind our second place in 2016-17 but you then add our Champions League campaign - victories over Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund home and away, coming from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Juventus - and reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup and while there is frustration that we went out to Juve and lost to United in that semi-final, it’s no surprise to see Jan talking about an improvement.