Manchester United’s defending, collectively and individually, has been very much of the haphazard, chaotic variety in recent years. Elementary mistakes, a lack of composure, disorganisation, miscommunication and little in the way of leadership. United fans will certainly have watched the hapless figure of Kurt Zouma at Old Trafford with an acute sense of familiarity. The Chelsea centre-half was practising the sort of erratic, eccentric defending that has not been uncommon from the home team on this ground but United will hope they are about to turn a sharp corner.

Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka will have gone to bed on Saturday night dreaming about what a perfect debut would look like and this is unlikely to have been too far removed from what they had framed in their minds.

The small details matter and, for all the excitement about the result and energetic pressing, not to mention the identity of the goalscorers, which included another lively debutant, Daniel James, there were moments from Wan-Bissaka and Maguire that will have brought out the broadest of smiles on the face of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the United manager.

United’s second goal originated from Maguire standing up to Tammy Abraham, muscling the Chelsea striker off the ball in one movement and then calmly prodding the ball to Scott McTominay to kickstart what would prove an electric break. That was just one example of the composure United paid Leicester City £85 million for this summer. The leadership, the organisation? Well, moments before that, Maguire was ushering Luke Shaw to slot in behind to cover him and effectively sandwich Abraham. Shaw was slow on the uptake but Maguire was not going to be ignored and began pointing forcefully with his hand to where he wanted his left-back. United haven’t seen too much of that since Rio Ferdinand vacated the building.