The sun was just trying to break through as Manchester United took the curtain here: a weak, hazy sunlight, a sunlight bordering on autumn, sunlight that seemed to have been taught by Ole Gunnar Solskjær how to press. But sunlight nonetheless. And however superficially routine this victory may have seemed in retrospect, days like these are actually quite rare for United, a club where the roof always seems to leak, even when it’s not raining.

This was, for context, only their second away win in the Premier League since February, their biggest away win since November, their biggest league win against Southampton since 2001, the year they left Dell. And yes, to get to that stage had required half an hour of sheer inertia, a saved penalty and the near-complete implosion of a home side who failed to register a single shot in the final hour of the game. But ultimately United had bought themselves a little breathing space.

With Southampton offering nothing but a treadmill of fouls, it was possible to see Erik ten Hag’s team as he always seems to see them: calm, controlled, almost serene. Kobbie Mainoo was able to run the midfield. Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo had clean green grass to run on. Alejandro Garnacho zipped around like a man who was a little too good for this game. Manuel Ugarte, the new anchorman brought in from Paris, looks like a real player.

How have we reached this point, a state of mind as much as a function of tactics? The scoreline explains a little, but not all. Many recent United teams have been two goals up – think Newcastle at home last season, Galatasaray away, pretty much every game of their FA Cup-winning run – and made the experience of managing look and feel like invasive dental surgery.

But here was a difference. And it may feel simplistic to reduce the output and success of one of the world’s biggest and most complex football clubs to the fate of a fleet-footed 26-year-old winger, but we’re going to do it anyway. You can throw your strategic review and your cultural reset and your new recruitment team and your renewed transfer strategy in the bin. Write this on a piece of paper: a happy Marcus Rashford is a happy Manchester United.

Just look at his team-mates celebrating with him as he scores his first United goal in over six months, almost lining up to celebrate with him, to share and amplify their joy. Just look at the United bench, somehow coming to life with a new defiant energy as Rashford cuts in from the left and slashes the ball low from range into Aaron Ramsdale’s net. Just look at Rashford himself, smiling like a man who has only just remembered to smile, a smile as infectious as Covid.

Of course, those six months included a few injuries at the end of last season, a long summer break without a tournament, a full pre-season and just 12 actual football games. Still. As the missed opportunities began to pile up, as first England and then United began to reorganise around him, something about this began to feel terminal, to the point where you could wonder whether Rashford could ever really be happy again – in footballing terms.

And certain players, in combination with certain teams, just seem to evoke these feelings. At United, perhaps only Bruno Fernandes comes close in terms of Rashford’s ability to control the emotional climate of the place. To the point where – because of the sheer amount of emotion invested in him, whether for historical, cultural or even ideological reasons – his successes and failures somehow feel emblematic of the whole in a way that Christian Eriksen’s or Diogo Dalot’s do not. Some players simply mean more.

You will point out – with some validity – that one goal in a 3-0 win over Southampton doesn’t mean much in itself. That Rashford’s pressure is still suspect, his position is still under threat, his career scoring record is still too inconsistent. And of course the data backs you up on all of this. But when we talk about the way a player can evoke feelings, we really go beyond what can be measurably achieved on a pitch in terms of goals and assists.

Also note that we are not talking about trophies or wins or even Premier League points. To an accountant or analyst, the difference between no goals in the last 189 days and one goal in the last 189 days is statistically insignificant, noise, a rounding error. But the difference is this: yesterday it rained and today it is sunny. For some players it really is that simple.