It is always a case of extremes these days, due to the very nature of the hyperbole that exists around the Premier League, especially early on, when everyone expects teams to hit the ground running.
There's a rush to panic because of rare precedents, set by Mourinho teams which raised the bar, ourselves, last season.
However, if last season taught us anything, and we should thank United for this, they are still the benchmark in terms of rolling with the punches, staying the course.
Yesterday, was a carbon copy of last season at Anfield. Decent passing or so for the opening 20 minutes and then the home side engaging us much higher up the field.
It's a measure of how far we have come, and how far Liverpool have dropped, they are talking in such glowing terms of Liverpool, their best efforts and all, and what I considered our most disjointed performance in a good while.
Factor in a 3-5-2 system change which can never really work without Clichy involved, still feeling the gears, optimum fitness, it was a get-out-of-jail-free result.
More encouraging for me, more than anything else, was how Silva and Dzeko impacted the game.
Dzeko stayed much more central, allowing Tevez to buzz around him, instead of running off down blind alleys.
And Silva, much more like it, keeping the ball until he was ready, instead of passing the buck, or attempting the killer pass every time.
Rodwell also looks like a player who is attempting to step up to the mark and showed great intelligence and awareness to cover the line from Carroll's late header.
Hopefully, Bobby will recognise that while 3-5-2 seems to be the increasing trend in international football, the pace in this league is not suited to it.
