How Manchester United have coped in their six games without Casemiro

A colleague from this parish received short shrift from Erik ten Hag two weeks ago at Carrington when he brought up Casemiro's absences and suggested "it is fair to say not all of them have gone particularly well".

Ten Hag interrupted him: "We did really well without Casemiro: against Arsenal, two against Leeds, I remember some other games also where we did really well without Casemiro and also at the start of the season."

Those last seven words confirmed the reference to Arsenal was the away fixture in January when Manchester United lost and were dominated in midfield. Arsenal had 25 attempts to United's meagre six, tallied 520 passes - 124 more than United - won three times as many corners and had almost 60% of possession. The 3-2 scoreline flattered United.

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Casemiro was in Manchester rather than London that day as he had cynically fouled Wilfried Zaha four days earlier, a blatant bookable offence and his fifth in the Premier League. That triggered a one-match suspension. Thirteen days later, his confrontation with Crystal Palace midfielder Will Hughes was dubiously deemed a red card offence, so Casemiro was sidelined for three more matches.

In the first, against Leeds at Old Trafford, United were 2-0 down with half-an-hour to play but drew. In the rematch at Elland Road four days later, it was not until Lisandro Martinez emerged to redress the team's balance that United seized control and broke the deadlock in the 80th minute.

For the visit of Leicester, United were fortuitously ahead at the interval after a performance Ten Hag branded "rubbish". He replaced Alejandro Garnacho with Jadon Sancho, whose impact was immediate. United won 3-0.

Ten Hag admitted