Darren Fletcher returned to the first team after spending a year recovering from the chronic bowel condition which some claimed would end his career. His every touch was cheered when he came on in our 3-0 win over Aston Villa and had a good 20 minutes, even if you have to take in to consideration how poor the opposition was.

We might be relying on him more than we would have liked this early on in his comeback though, with David Moyes confirming that Marouane Fellaini could be out for some time, after an injury to his back isn’t healing.

“Fellaini has an injury to his back, which we hoped might have healed up but it hasn’t,” Moyes said. “I am going to get another scan and if it hasn’t healed up then I might need to take the decision to get his wrist done as well. We hoped his back would be better in 10 days or so but he is still feeling it.”

Michael Carrick is another midfielder who is out and Moyes hopes that he will be ready to return for our game against Spurs.

“Michael has just started some work outside on the grass,” Moyes added. “He is getting a little bit closer. “He is roughly due to be back at New Year’s Day time. We might be able to squeeze a few more days out of it if possible but I couldn’t be sure yet.”