A year ago Manchester United surrendered encouraging home draws in the domestic cups with supine and accommodating performances, giving up chances of silverware to West Ham and Middlesbrough at Old Trafford.
Those meek and mild exits from the Carabao Cup and FA Cup summed up a wretched season. There was nothing scary about United, unless you were watching from the Stretford End when you had to peak through your fingers.
On Tuesday they will play a seventh consecutive domestic cup tie at Old Trafford, but this time nobody is expecting a shock. After knocking Everton out of the FA Cup it's now eight wins in a row for Erik ten Hag's side in front of their own fans.
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The mood around Old Trafford is certainly far better than a year ago and this Friday night opener to third-round weekend fizzed on and off the pitch. It was an end-to-end cup tie in which Everton played a far greater role than expected.
But it was also a crackling atmosphere. The Friday night schedule and the presence of 9,000 fans in the away end probably helped with that, but it gave it the feel of a real cup tie. Unusually for fans of clubs from Manchester and Merseyside, they had something in common as well: chants against the owners of their clubs.
Everton's support were signing 'sack the board' 15 minutes before kick-off and the Stretford End delivered their verdict on the Glazers after all of United's goals, as usual.
The first, from Antony after three minutes, threatened to open the floodgates before a dreadful David de Gea blunder let Everton back in. Conor Coady's own goal put United back ahead, but they survived a scare.
The smell of the cordite from the blue smoke bombs let off when Dominic Calvert-Lewin thought he had equalised was still drifting across Old Trafford when VAR intervened to cut the celebrations short, much to the delight and the amusement of United supporters, who had more to celebrate when Marcus Rashford capped off another excellent individual performance with a goal from the penalty spot in stoppage time.
United have played better than this recently and will do so again, but they are finding ways to get through games now. It's 19 wins from 26 games under Ten Hag. It's a superb record and one that should lead to bigger and better things.
When you're winning that often is inevitable that finals and trophies will follow and it could well be this season. United certainly look to have found a groove under Ten Hag.
Of the starting XI that won the club's last trophy back in May 2017, only Rashford is still at the club. David de Gea and Anthony Martial were on the bench that night and Luke Shaw was not in the squad, but that is it really. Scott McTominay was yet to have his big breakthrough.
Ten Hag is assembling an excellent squad here. There are two World Cup winners, plenty of Champions League titles and a whole host of medals, but there is very little collective muscle memory when it comes to winning silverware for United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer used to say that winning that first trophy would be a game-changer for his squad, but they kept falling at the final hurdle. This group are made of sterner stuff and they're thriving under a better, more experienced manager.
The title is a long shot, but the Carabao Cup semi-finals and should be assured and if United can get another home draw or two in the FA Cup, then nobody would fancy their chances of winning at Old Trafford. Barcelona might find that out in the Europa League next month.
Ten Hag doesn't need a trophy to the same extent that Solskjaer did. He has more credit in the bank already, but it would be a significant deposit if he could take United back to the top spot of a podium this season.
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