Sir Alex has explained that David de Gea has been left out of the starting line-up for Southampton because of his mistake against Fulham last weekend. United were comfortably winning 3-1 but after failing to make a cross his own, Fulham were let back in to the game and we looked fairly shaky from then on.

Peter Schmeichel or Edwin Van der Sar would have claimed that cross no bother, taking out both players if needed, whilst David still struggles to impose himself physically.

“I think young David made a mistake last week,” he said. “He knows it. With the form he’s been in, he’s been making some fantastic saves, but one error like that could have cost us the game. It’s just a learning process for him and he’ll be back in a couple of weeks’ time.”