Abrilliant substitution? An expensive get out of jail card that simply covers inadequacies elsewhere? There is truth to both answers but, having seen Edinson Cavani inspire a remarkable second-half comeback, you only had to look at the reaction on the Manchester United bench to sense that this result might carry a wider significance.
Trailing 2-0 at half-time to a very good Southampton side, United looked destined for a fourth Premier League defeat of the season and a week of familiar scrutiny about just how long patience with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can last.
It always helps, though, to have the option of a genuinely world-class striker among your substitutes and, while you might equally ask why Cavani had not started, Solskjaer was at least decisive in bringing him on for Mason Greenwood at half-time.
An assist and two Cavani goals later, including a brilliant headed winner in added time, and United had salvaged the sort of last-gasp and momentum-building victory that was the club’s hallmark when Solskjaer was a player. This was also United’s eighth consecutive away win and, while it would take a brave pundit to predict any sort of serious title challenge under Solskjaer, they have at least again eased the immediate pressure and moved up into the top half of the Premier League.
With what looked like a tweaked 4-3-1-2 formation, they also began brightly and might twice have taken the lead. First Jan Vestergaard had a serious lapse in concentration and presented Mason Greenwood with a clear run at goal but, having taken the ball around Alex McCarthy, he shot into the side-netting with the goal at his mercy.
Bruno Fernandes then also glanced the outside of McCarthy’s post with an effort from just outside the penalty area. United were in command but regular watchers of Southampton will be familiar now with how, having absorbed a period of pressure, they can suddenly switch up a gear.
Hasenhuttl had also become more vocal on the touchline and, after about 15 minutes, United began being pinned back by an added urgency in Southampton’s pressing. From a corner, Ward-Prowse’s precise cross found Jan Bednarek who, having sprinted between Alex Tellos and Marcus Rashford, glanced his near-post header beyond David de Gea.
Kyle Walker-Peters quickly followed that up with a deflected shot off De Gea’s post and then Moussa Djenepo, who was causing problems down United’s right, won a free-kick from Fred. There are few better dead-ball exponents just now in Europe than Ward-Prowse and he brilliantly sent his free-kick up over the United wall and inside De Gea’s near-post.
It was his fifth goal direct from a free-kick since the start of last season - a statistic that only Lionel Messi can equal across the top European leagues.
United did have further first-half chances themselves, notably when McCarthy’s clearance was horribly miss-kicked into Greenwood’s path. Greenwood’s shot was just close enough for McCarthy to parry and the Southampton goalkeeper then quickly recovered to make an even better point-blank save to deny Bruno Fernandes on the follow up.
De Gea had collided with the post in trying to save Ward-Prowse’s free-kick and he was replaced at half-time by Dean Henderson. After missing those two good first-half chances, Greenwood was also taken off at half-time as Solskjaer opted for the added physical presence alongside Rashford of Edinson Cavani. It was the catalyst for a huge improvement even if two frustrating misses soon followed. Having raced clear on goal, Rashford ignored the option to his right of Cavani and instead had his shot well saved by McCarthy. Cavani himself then had an excellent chance but was unable to keep his swivelling volley beneath the cross-bar.
United were an increasing attacking threat, however, and a deserved goal did come after 59th minute when Cavani’s run and cross helped tee up Fernandes’s impressive finish past McCarthy. Cavani had also just headed only narrowly before brilliantly glancing Fernandes’s powerful shot beyond McCarthy.
He had already turned the match on its head but, as the match entered its second minute of added time, there was still time for one final flourish. Fernandes fed a free-kick to Rashford, whose cross to the edge of the six-yard box was quite brilliantly headed beyond McCarthy by Cavani.
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