Perhaps it is fitting that the 2020s should begin for Manchester United with a trip to Arsenal. The last decade began with United and Arsenal second and third respectively in the Premier League table, but having shared 11 of the first 12 Premier League titles, there were only two between them in the 2010s, the most recent of those going to United in 2013.

These are two sides who find themselves in transition, of that there can be no question. Whether the 2020s can provide happier times remains to be seen, but for Ole Gunnar Solskjær at least there are grounds for cautious optimism. United finished 2019 with back-to-back victories against Newcastle and Burnley and, unlike Wednesday’s opponents, are firmly in the race for the Champions League places.

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Whether that counts as any sort of success given the harsh fall from the game’s elite United have endured in recent years is debatable but Solskjær at least believes he is beginning to see his Manchester United emerge through the mire. “We’re certainly improving,” he said. “I think we can see more and more of what we want to be and our identity, and what we’re good at.”

What United and Solskjær have been good at this season is the continued development of several young players who could shape the club’s future. In what has been a season – and indeed a managerial reign – littered with inconsistency, the biggest positive for Solskjær is that players such as Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams are now first-team regulars, with the latter again impressing at Burnley on Saturday evening.

Solskjær has preached the need for patience throughout his time at Old Trafford and he reiterated that message at the weekend as United brought the decade to an end with victory at Turf Moor. “2020 sounds quite good for me,” he says. “I’m going to make 2020 a good year for myself. I think we’re on the right track as a club. We’re in a transition period but we’ve seen other clubs do it and come out strong after a couple of years. We will consign this decade [to the past] definitely, that’s just the nature of this club. We’ve played the same way for a little while and we’re getting used to each other. We’re still quite a bit away from where we want to be, though.”

Eyebrows were raised in the summer when United failed to bring in a replacement for Romelu Lukaku, but Greenwood’s form – the 18-year-old has scored eight times in all competitions this season – suggests the makings of a player who can provide regular goals up front alongside Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial for years to come.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mason Greenwood has chipped in with eight goals. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/BPI/Shutterstock

“We always believed Anthony and Marcus were going to score goals,” Solskjær says. “But Mason has certainly filled a big void. He’s chipped in with goals. So I’m not worried about goals from our centre-forwards. Mason’s on eight, Marcus I don’t know … 14 or 15? Anthony has quite a few too. Romelu is a good striker and will always score goals but it was time for him to move on. We didn’t find the right one outside our club but we knew we had Mason.”

The first month of the new decade will be crucial in Solskjær’s long-term vision for United. Players may well come and go during the January transfer window and Paul Pogba is never likely to be far away from the headlines in that regard. But with the Norwegian promising he will not simply bring players in for the sake of it and risk upsetting his team’s harmony, it is clear Solskjær is focusing on what he has at his disposal already.

“Last week against Newcastle the average age of the starting outfield players was 23,” he says. “I don’t know about Burnley but it was still a young side. We’ll have ups and downs, but hopefully there will be less of the downs. Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were replaced by two fantastic performances from Ashley Young and Brandon Williams, so that gives me more options moving forward.”

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One noticeable difference in Solskjær’s United as the decade drew to a close was the way they were able to break down Newcastle and Burnley. “We’re not a Manchester City; we can’t out-play teams like they do yet but hopefully in a few years we can,” he says.

There is, by the manager’s own admission, a way to go yet before they can even begin to think about returning to where they were at the start of the 2010s, but if nothing else, there is cautious optimism about what lies ahead at Old Trafford as the new decade begins.