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When it comes to the Premier League, the Christmas period is an unforgiving time. Matches come thick and fast; fixture after fixture as the football calendar waits for no man. Pressure mounts as title-challenges and relegation battles are made and broken. Nothing is ultimately decided at this time of the year, but it can certainly feel like it.

It is a whirlwind. A highly enjoyable whirlwind for fans, who can gorge themselves on a glut of football, but a whirlwind nonetheless. All of which makes it difficult to find time to reflect on the year that is drawing to a close. Manchester United fans, in particular, would do well to take a moment to pause and consider where they were this time last year. So, with that in mind, allow me to transport you back to 21st December 2013.

Many fans had harboured grave doubts as to David Moyes’ suitability to the role of Manchester United manager from the very beginning. Even as Sir Alex Ferguson was urging us to ‘get behind’ the new man come what may, it was impossible to shift the sense of uneasiness rising within.

By this time last season, that uneasiness had morphed into outright dread. It had already become painfully obvious that Moyes was incapable of handling a job of such magnitude. He was utterly consumed by fear of failure, like a man who, spying the woman of his dreams from across a crowded room, shuffles from one foot to the other, all sweaty palms and dry mouth, as he tries to pluck up the courage to speak to her, only to find himself being barged out of the way by a bigger, more self-assured suitor.

The players, crowned champions just a few months earlier, became the on-pitch embodiment of their manager’s state of mind, as if they had caught his anxiety like a common cold. They became the football equivalent of a rudderless ship, veering about like a drunk trying to drive a lorry. Cracks that would become chasms had already begun to open up in the fortress that was Old Trafford; West Brom, Everton and Newcastle had already come, seen and conquered, while Stoke and Southampton had been unlucky not to do the same. The ‘Theatre of Dreams’ epitaph was beginning to seem like a cruel, ironic jibe.

Meanwhile, Liverpool had run rings around United at Anfield, while Manchester City had destroyed us at the Etihad, despite barely getting out of first gear.

Defeats happen. No one expected things to be easy after Ferguson’s retirement. We are a patient lot. But the football was disgusting; unacceptable. United were a clueless, hapless, hopeless mess. We looked for turning points in every victory, every slick passage of play the team stumbled upon but, in our hearts, we knew that there was no light at the end of this tunnel. It was already beginning to feel like the end of an era; the changing of the guard; that we were on the verge of ‘doing a Liverpool’ and fading into mediocrity, potentially for decades.

Now look at us. Things are far from perfect but, given the indecisiveness of last term, from the ludicrous summer transfer pantomime to Moyes’ pointless gesticulating from the side-lines, the club has acted with incredible determination. They sacked Moyes, hired Louis van Gaal and threw eye-watering sums of cash at the problem. It is clear that Manchester United has no intention of meekly settling into the background.

Van Gaal has more than just an impressive CV. He possesses the kind of gravitas that a United manager needs. His composure and self-belief is clearly seeping into players who retreated far within their shells last season. They, like the fans, look rejuvenated. There is a spirit about this team once again; a sense of togetherness and excitement about what is being built. Old Trafford is once more a happy place to be after the nightmares witnessed there under the previous regime.

On Saturday, Ángel Di María was brought off the bench against Aston Villa to join Radamel Falcao on the pitch. Just read that back! Two of the world’s finest, most exhilarating players in United colours. Who could have seen that coming this time last year? Villa may have brought United’s winning run to a disappointing end but, with players returning from injury, the January transfer window coming into view and so much attacking talent yet to fully click, the future looks brighter than we could possibly have foreseen on 21st December 2013.