“You keep caning me and then you ask for interviews,” Owen said, turning down requests to speak about his goal against Wigan to the press.

There is something appealing about Owen’s “me against the world” attitude. It’s a feeling we so frequently feel against the FA and the press. He became a bit of a laughing stock at Newcastle, something I certainly enjoyed, so it is understandable he wants to stick his fingers up at everyone now he’s a Manchester United player. In an interview at the beginning of the month he smugly said those who doubted him should feel ’embarrassed’ now.

Before that he looked at how the media had treated him during his time with Newcastle.

“If you don’t score and you don’t win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids,” said Owen. “If the goals had been going in I would have been a great lad, popping home to see my three kids and be a family man on a Tuesday after training. I would have been thoughtful and innocent little things would not be misrepresented.”

So, he didn’t give the press their interview after scoring, but he did have a word with MUTV about the criticism he’s had already at United, and likened that to the criticism United have faced over the years.

“I only played an hour or so against Burnley and had 15-20 minutes in the home game against Birmingham, so I’ve not played 90 minutes yet in total but there has still been quite a lot made of the fact I hadn’t scored,” said Owen. “It was as though I hadn’t scored for a couple of years, so it was a nice feeling to score. The stuff I’ve had to face over the years is the same for United. They have won the Premier League so many times, including the last three, so it is inevitable that one defeat or even one draw and everyone is mentioning the word ‘crisis’. Well, we’ve come up with the answer today.”

Who would have thought it? I’m actually starting to like Michael Owen!