It has felt like an awfully long time coming, and United have lost so much ground over recent months that the top four remains a very tall order, but play like this consistently over the remainder of the campaign and anything is possible.
Yes, Fulham were largely pitiful, their brief hope of a comeback when Aboubakar Kamara scored from the penalty spot to make it 3-1 extinguished when Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa was sent off for a second booking a minute later. But United will dispatch much better teams playing with this sort of pace and purpose and, on an afternoon when Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford claimed their first goals at Old Trafford this term after goals from Ashley Young and Juan Mata gave them an early lead, it was telling that Mourinho’s side again looked far more enterprising going forward without Paul Pogba.
Pogba was not even summoned from the substitutes’ bench, Mourinho instead preferring Marcos Rojo, Fred and Scott McTominay, and in these strange times at Old Trafford, you have to wonder what the future holds for the mercurial France midfielder while this manager remains in situ.
Mata and Jesse Lingard offering plenty of running and cunning, both effectively playing as No 10s with licence to roam, Young and Diogo Dalot, making only his second league start, worked up and down the flanks brilliantly all afternoon from full-back and Rashford’s sheer work ethic deserved a cathartic goal, his jubilation - and that of his team-mates - clear for all to see when he smashed one in late on after Fulham stood off and watched. Fulham? Much more of this and even Claudio Ranieri will struggle to keep them up.
