IT’S a little too early to be admiring a garden in full bloom again.
But there is no denying the green – make that red – shoots of recovery are most definitely poking through at Old Trafford once more.
Two League wins and another over European no-hopers will never have them putting out the bunting at a club which has got through more silver polish than anyone over the past couple of decades.
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Yet given how bleak things looked barely a month ago, there is suddenly a very definite sense of a corner being turned at Manchester United.
Of course they rode their luck a little at Crystal Palace this week. Zlatan Ibrahmovic may well have used an arm, Paul Pogba may have been just offside and Marcos Rojo was definitely fortunate to escape red for another two-footed lunge.
Just like they wobbled at times in sending Tottenham home with their tail between their legs three days earlier.
But therein lies the rub. Therein lies the feeling they have gone from being the unluckiest team in the league, as Jose Mourinho called them, to one finally getting the breaks.
If Palace had pegged them back a month or so earlier, there is every chance they would have gone on and won the game.
Certainly you wouldn’t have seen, as we did, a United side knuckle down to business, dominate for a second time, and get their reward with a late winner.
A month earlier, if Spurs had enjoyed all the possession they did in the second half on Sunday, only a foolhardly punter would have backed United to see it out.
Even Ukrainian no-hopers Zorya would have fancied celebrating their finest hour had that Europa League clash been in mid-November.
Not now. Not now that Jose Time seems to be replacing Fergie Time. Not now that Pogba has puffed out his chest and increasingly running the engine room.
Not now that Rojo and Phil Jones are slowly and steadily looking an impenetrable force at the back.
Or Ander Herrera snapping around the midfield alongside Pogba like a bad-tempered Jack Russell, or with Michael Carrick playing as imperiously as he has in years.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was looking the player everyone thought he could be before he was crocked against Spurs, and he will be straining to come back on Boxing Day.
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Not with Zlatan continuing to defy the years with crucial goal after crucial goal.
And not when Wayne Rooney – contrary to those chomping at the bit to write him off – still has as much to offer as he does, whether off the bench or from the kick off.
Given the start they have given others, there is every chance the title will prove beyond United this
But – Chelsea aside – they are increasingly looking the team you don’t want to be playing right now.
City and Liverpool have back-line blunders in them in every game, Arsenal showed they can still be as flaky as ever in midweek, and Spurs always flatter to deceive.
After this weekend’s trip to West Brom they face three of the bottom six, in Sunderland, Middlesbrough and West Ham.
A League Cup final slot is also there for the taking, with a two-legged semi against Hull next month too.
By the time Liverpool come to Old Trafford in mid-January, there’s every likelihood they will be facing a United operating at full steam.
And that makes them a very dangerous beast indeed over the months ahead.
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