Cristiano Ronaldo hits hat-trick to give Manchester United edge over Norwich

Cometh the hour, cometh Cristiano Ronaldo for seemingly the umpteenth time this season to save Manchester United.

After 75 minutes the score was level and Ralf Rangnick’s side were teetering on the brink of yet another capitulation after holding a two-goal lead. But then Ronaldo smashed a 25-yard free-kick in off Tim Krul’s right post and that was 3-2 – and a second hat-trick since 12 March for a 37-year-old who now has 15 Premier League goals this season.

Until his intervention this contest was being written up as the latest surrender of a sorry season from Rangnick’s band. Today’s theme had been lax marking and errant defensive positioning: both Kieran Dowell and Teemu Pukki benefited from amateurish execution of basic tenets of the game.

Norwich deserved maximum credit for their fightback from a 2-0 deficit and the result was heading for the last thing United needed after the dire 1-0 loss at Everton, especially against the backdrop of renewed protests against the Glazer family’s ownership that began before kick-off. But Ronaldo’s supreme career is built on him penning the narrative and, with Arsenal losing at Southampton, United are up to fifth and three points behind Tottenham, who were also defeated on Saturday.

What ended in the right result for United had also begun brightly in late spring sunshine. They were in control precisely as they should be against the league’s bottom-placed side who arrived here seven points from safety. There was a hogging of possession that fluttered about 62% in the first half and, most vitally, there were goals.

The first came on seven minutes. United fanned out to pressure a restart from Krul. He tapped the ball to Ben Gibson who fed it to Dimitris Giannoulis. The left-back returned