Wayne Rooney expressed hope that a new era at Manchester United was slowly being ushered in and Ander Herrera suggested they were “cooking up a fantastic team”.

It took Michael Carrick to sound a note of caution and remind people that only a fortnight earlier “everything was a disaster” in the wake of a 3-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur that dealt a damaging blow to United’s prospects of a top four finish.

“This doesn’t change the whole thing,” the midfielder said after Anthony Martial’s wonderful stoppage time winner against Everton on Saturday swept United into their first FA Cup final for nine years.

There is, of course, a persuasive case to argue that Louis van Gaal has stumbled upon a promising formula by accident rather than design and that even a Cup triumph against Crystal Palace on May 21 may not be enough to earn the Dutchman another stab at things next season.