Last week, when sounding a warning note about the next fence in United’s so-called ‘easy run-in’, I doomed: “In football as in life: never drop your guard when approaching the city of the damned.” What a joyless told-you-so this is.

Most eyes were probably on events in Barcelona’s Nou Camp and Munich’s Allianz Arena last Tuesday evening, but there were happenings of a less-gilded though far more uplifting and important nature unfolding at the same time at the tidy little Tameside Stadium in Ashton-Under-Lyne in England’s north-west.

Ah well. I did take care to insert a giddy-warning in last week’s column, and it turned out to be well-founded. United’s unexpected spring offensive duly found out that Stamford was indeed A Bridge Too Far.

Manchester United 3 Aston Villa 1: Alex Ferguson was king of the mind games when he ruled Old Trafford as Manchester United’s all-conquering manager and now it appears some of that psychological warfare is being added to Louis van Gaal’s armoury.

Louis van Gaal is sure Robin van Persie will have no problem accepting Wayne Rooney as the new captain of Manchester United.

Manchester United triumphed in Louis van Gaal's first home match as manager tonight as substitute Marouane Fellaini's late goal saw them defeat Valencia 2-1 at Old Trafford.

Ryan Giggs was pictured in the Netherlands yesterday for a meeting with Manchester United’smanager-in-waiting, Louis van Gaal.