Given Juan Mata hasn’t started a Premier League for Manchester United all season and is leaving the club in three weeks, this wasn’t a great time to discover he might still have plenty to offer even at 34.
For the first time in a while, the United attack played with fluency and invention against Brentford and it was Mata knitting so much of it together.
This was a game played at an end-of-season tempo, entertaining for its openness but also not as demanding physically as a January fixture when prizes are still on the line. So it suited Mata, in other words.
