Erik ten Hag has the Manchester United moment he felt was missing last season after Southampton win

The beauty of a sliding doors moment is that you never quite know what an alternative reality had in store for you. Things might have been different, they might even have better, but it's all guesswork.

That doesn't stop us from thinking about the what-ifs. From wasting time wondering about a vision we will never get to see. Erik ten Hag couldn't help himself last season, thinking aloud in May about how different Manchester United's season might have been had a decision been different back in September.

These little moments can become an obsession. For Ten Hag, it was United's late defeat at Arsenal in their fourth Premier League game of the season. What started simply as a moment of frustration morphed into something more substantial as the season came off the rails.

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That's why he was still talking about it seven months later. In Ten Hag's version, United were denied an 87th-minute penalty at 1-1, then scored through Alejandro Garnacho only to see the goal disallowed for the tightest of VAR offside calls. Arsenal went up the other end and won the game themselves, with a goal United felt should also have been ruled out.

It was the turning point that never was. One of the more encouraging performances of the season ended in defeat. Had it ended in victory maybe things would have been different. Not just the three extra points, but the belief it would have instilled in the squad.

We'll never know now, but if that was Ten Hag's example of a turning point that cost United, in the fourth game of this season he got one that will undoubtedly benefit them.

"Confidence is a great thing," Ten Hag said back in May. "This season we