Eleven years to the day that a Manchester United No.10 was dropped over a disciplinary issue, the incumbent was. Unlike Wayne Rooney's removal, Marcus Rashford's didn't backfire.
Whereas Rooney was absent altogether on New Year's Eve in 2011, Rashford was on the bench for oversleeping and missing a team meeting. His demotion was so temporary he was summoned at the interval. He scored the winner. Erik ten Hag and Rashford strolled off almost arm in arm.
This is Rashford reinvented. He would have struggled to overcome such a setback last season but he is now back in talismanic mode, with more than twice as many goals as he tallied last season before New Year's Day.
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Goals are hard to come by for United with or without Rashford. Without him, Alejandro Garnacho, Anthony Martial and Antony fired blanks in the umpteenth goalless first-half between Wolves and United.
Rashford slammed in his 14th goal for club and country this term, taken so incisively he eased off his marker and waited for the gap to appear. Rashford has returned from Qatar with a goal in each of his three club appearances.
For Ten Hag, this represented a triple victory: his authority was reasserted, the admonished player responded and United gained three points. For the first time since March, they occupy a Champions League place in the Premier League table.
United needed to restore discipline to the dressing room and have done so with an authoritative manager. Ten Hag aired his first rollocking in the third minute and he decisively hooked Garnacho.
Rashfford is small-fry for Ten Hag after seeing off Cristiano Ronaldo and Garnacho's tardy timekeeping cost him on the pre-season tour. United players have been forewarned and the culture is more conducive to the club's true ethos.
Rooney's indulgence over the festive period in 2011 cost him a squad place altogether and cost United, beaten by Blackburn on Sir Alex Ferguson's birthday. Even the best err when taking players down a peg.
Ten Hag could afford to deny Ronaldo a seat on the plane to London for the draw with Chelsea in October but Rashford is United's highest scorer and the only other attacker sat nearby was Anthony Elanga, without a United goal since February 22. Whatever the severity, it was not egregious enough to warrant a complete omission.
Facundo Pellistri, untried more than two years on from his signing, was absent from the squad for the second match since Ten Hag laughably suggested he could offset Ronaldo's departure. Pellistri would have been a worthy impact option as the game ticked past the hour mark with still no breakthrough.
During a lengthy stoppage in the second-half, Ten Hag beckoned Casemiro to the touchline to study his tactics binder. The wait for the restart was so lengthy a second attacking change was logical yet Elanga's stock has fallen so far Everton are courting him and Ten Hag turned to Donny van de Beek. Casemiro received a bear hug from his manager at full-time.
Bold calls have paid dividends for Ten Hag this season but this one was not as straightforward. Garnacho ought to have vindicated his recall for Rashford but for the second week running he showed mercy to the goalkeeper. It is an opportunity Rashford would have likely buried and Garnacho's punishment of a half-time substitution was just as galling as Rashford's disciplinary.
Rather than shy away from the assembled photographers in the dugout, Rashford trudged towards them moments before kick-off. A forward who has not gone into hiding on the pitch this season was not about to do so off it.
Figures at United declined to amplify on the "internal disciplinary" Ten Hag cited when it would have nipped it in the bud. Rashford confirmed afterwards he had missed a meeting. He didn't miss his chance.
Whoever the manager is, United are always involved in a slugfest at Wolves, where games are either drawn or won by a one-goal margin. Mercifully, the teams had not met in 362 days when in 2020 they faced each other three times in the first 32 days.
This gruelling game was so vital the substituted Bruno Fernandes and unused Victor Lindelof were in the technical area to celebrate an added-time free-kick. The scenes there at full-time have never been so ardent under Ten Hag.
Raphael Varane was colossal again and Luke Shaw is in danger of reinventing himself at centre half. Shaw passed an early examination from the nuisance Diego Costa and the aging Spaniard only lasted a half.
It was at Molineux last year that United supporters celebrated Ronaldo's homecoming with a cardboard cutout. In the unlikely event Ronaldo was tuning in from Riyadh, the opening chant was not a homage to him but "Viva Garnacho", with the Argentine occupying the wing in front of the away-dayers stretched across the Steve Bull Stand. "Ronaldo's right you're f-----g s---e," chanted those in the Sir Jack Hayward Stand.
As Rooney himself has noted, United are better without him.
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