Amorim persists, as the fans rightly protest, and gets glimpse of how his team might look

With 53 minutes gone at Old Trafford, Manchester United's home support was treated for one brief, flickering moment to a glimpse of the Amorim-shaped universe, a vision of what may yet come to pass.

- Barney Ronay

Out of nowhere, on an afternoon that had felt to that point like a competently staged practice event, United's wing-backs Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui appeared in a wide pincer, surging towards the Arsenal goal, a living, breathing incarnation of the Amorim blueprint.

Left wing-back Dalot dug out a cross. Right wing-back Mazraoui counted his strides and placed a measured volley just too close to David Raya.

The moment passed just as quickly, a doomed snapshot of whatever it is United's head coach sees as he lies in bed staring at the ceiling thinking about shapes and lines and patterns. Wing-back shall speak unto wing-back. Manchester United 1-0 up and living the system.

The ultimate destiny of the Premier League title - squint a little and just go with it - in their hands in early March.

Except of course that moment of destiny involves effectively handing the title to Liverpool by taking two more points off their nominal pursuers Arsenal in this distracted 1-1 draw.

By the time the clock had ambled on to 76 minutes, with Casemiro basically playing in goal by now, Jurrien Timber was able to zigzag into space and feed the ball back in to Declan Rice, who spanked a fine, angry shot in off the far post.