No wonder Marcus Rashford rolled out the trademark celebration and pointed to his temple - a sign he is in a better headspace - after doing emphatic justice to Luke Shaw’s assist.
It was Rashford’s head - Rashford’s cool, calm head, Rashford’s accomplished head - that won this game for Manchester United and swept the way clear for Alejandro Garnacho’s late party-piece. Rashford’s statistics are impressive, 13 goals in 15 games since being scandalously misused by Gareth Southgate in Qatar.
But what is equally impressive is how he seems to have developed his all-round game and how he is adding extra dimensions to his already-dynamic game. Let’s be honest, while he was far from alone, Rashford had endured a fairly dismal afternoon until Shaw shaped to persuade a cross into the Leeds area ten minutes before the end of normal time.
Out of keeping with pretty much everything that had occurred previously, Rashford timed his run to perfection, Shaw delivered to perfection and the England striker executed the scoring header to perfection. The way Rashford and Shaw have flourished under Ten Hag is a significant measure of the manager’s impact in his relatively brief reign.
And his team now enjoys a cushion over fifth-placed Tottenham that suggests qualification for next season’s Champions League is not exactly a formality but it should be an extremely high probability. Rashford’s aerial intervention immediately sapped the energy from a highly-committed Leeds and substitute Garnacho dashed ahead of exhausted bodies to put an unlikely gloss on the victory.
Because before the two-goal finale, it was dreadful stuff. It was reported Dutch coach Alfred Schreuder, a contender for the Leeds job, was at Elland Road for an occasion laced with its customary poison.
Let’s hope he had not been anticipating total football. In the main, this was zero football. The first half was spectacularly abysmal, noteworthy only for its blizzard of fouls and for Illan Meslier foiling Bruno Fernandes when the Portuguese took a breather from bleating and skipped clear.
Leeds were suitably energetic but struggled to create anything of note, even though Harry Maguire’s performance was an excellent explainer of why this was a rare Premier League start for him. And the Manchester United captain’s shocking pass, one of several, was typical of his side’s struggles early in the second half.
Crysencio Summerville - one of the more accomplished players on the field - brought a decent save out of David de Gea and Jack Harrison clipped an ambitious effort a foot wide.
The Fernandes opening before the interval had been the result of a Leeds mistake and it was not until Diogo Dalot’s strike gave the crossbar a meaty thud just after hour that Ten Hag’s team fashioned a chance of their own making. Ten Hag’s assertion that elite recruitment is required in the summer is a statement of the obvious.
But he should be fine with his keeper, De Gea marking his 400th Premier League appearance with a trademark foot-save from Summerville which proved to be Leeds’ last chance before Rashford and Garnacho stepped up to the plate.
At least the home side showed the sort of endeavour that will give them a chance of survival but they need to show a cooler head … just like Rashford.
