Mathias Jensen celebrated by holding his finger to his mouth after scoring against Manchester United in August. He had just given Brentford a two-goal lead within 20 minutes and he was gesturing that Erik ten Hag's side had been silenced and stunned.
Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot and Christian Eriksen threw their hands in disbelief while David de Gea trudged toward his goal to pick up the ball for the restart. De Gea had just made two mistakes in quick succession and Ten Hag, who was standing exasperated under the glaring sun on the touchline, was aware that his gameplan had been made redundant. De Gea wanted the ground to swallow him whole.
The players slowly returned to their positions as they stared at the blades of grass beneath them and it was clear at that moment they were already defeated. It is not impossible to overturn a two-goal advantage, but the players' body language, with the exception of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was shouting and gesturing from the halfway line, suggested they had already accepted their fate.
