Step by step, game by game, Cristiano Ronaldo is moving away from Manchester United; just not in the way that he imagined it.

Given that United's next home game is against Arsenal on Sunday week, after the transfer deadline, he may have played his final game at Old Trafford.

If so, it was an inauspicious affair. A nine-minute substitute appearance - including five minutes of additional time - featuring one off-target shot and not much else. 

His arrival got a big cheer, as always, but as he departed from the field, attention was elsewhere - much of it on a younger, more vibrant United team who had beaten Liverpool in the league for the first time since 2018. A team who, pointedly, strode into the future without Ronaldo.