Marcus Rashford did not wait to be told what was happening by Paul Pogba this time. There was no discussion, no decision by committee. He picked up the ball, put it down on the spot, breathed in, breathed out, picked his spot and smashed the penalty kick against the post.

In a week dominated by the fallout from Pogba’s missed penalty against Wolverhampton Wanderers, it turns out Rashford is capable of missing them too and, sadly, he can also be racially abused on social media when he does.

So, how many designated penalty kick takers do Manchester United need? There is the punchline to a joke in there somewhere, but nobody at Old Trafford is laughing because this defeat by Crystal Palace – the first time the London club have beaten United in the Premier League era - exposed more than just the old truism anyone can miss from 12 yards.

This was an afternoon when old frustrations and lingering concerns about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side and depth of his squad re-emerged. A game that reminded everyone of familiar failings and shortcomings. United have been losing games like this for far too long.

Forget the penalty miss, as irritating as it was, and focus instead on the fact that, asked to find a way through a packed defence, United quickly lost their way, conceded a ridiculously soft goal at the end of Palace’s first attack and, then, having finally equalised through Daniel James with two minutes to go, somehow managed to lose in stoppage time when Patrick van Aanholt beat David De Gea at his near post.