Thus can one conclude such is Life Sans Pogba, which we hear may yet endure well beyond his initially expected return date of October 6?

I would certainly suggest that United’s second-half display should have given all the fanbase’s schools of thought a little cause for concern. Especially in midfield, where the slackness, lack of concentration and sloppiness in possession left us in danger of being overrun at one point. Which — Pogba or not — would have been a ludicrous state of affairs against such unstellar opposition. As a colleague snarled afterwards: “it’s hard for me to feel as smug as some do when you’ve just seen a game we could easily have lost 3-1”.

Seeing City and Chelsea effortlessly rack up the goals at the weekend also caused some uncomfortable seat-shifting. Chelsea put four past a team we could only draw against the other week, while City’s five against our next opponents Palace sets up a hefty instant compare ‘n’ contrast challenge. For the last remaining hardcore members of the José-sceptic brigade — and they haven’t quite gone away, you know — there lingers the suspicion that this team has simply not been properly tested yet, and may still be found wanting against its first decent opposition.

This fear will seem bigoted and irrational to most of us. But perhaps it speaks to the damage done to the psyche by the repeated post-Fergie false dawns we endured.

We have so often tried to convince ourselves we are on the right path, only to be proved wrong, that for some there’s now a Pavlovian fear-response.

Does Moscow this week constitute such a “proper test”, then? On paper, on the pitch, no; arguably, the only real test will be for the travelling Reds, weighed down by various bloodcurdling warnings from the authorities about the welcome that might be received.

To add to the potential fun ‘n’ games, Liverpool’s awayday brigades are also in Moscow this week, which has inspired suggestions from some about various combinations of ‘three-way action’ that may be on offer. Fnar fnar.

We may also get a reminder of what real racism sounds like, judging by many black players’ recent experiences at Russian away games. That would put last week’s ridiculous furore over the admittedly silly and embarrassing Lukaku song into proper context.

I would be tempted to dub this controversy a classic example of a ‘First World Problem’, were that not risking an allegation of racism from the professional offence-takers for its intrinsic allusion to the unfashionable term ‘Third World’.

You can imagine a rolled-eyes emoticon placed here, dear reader; haven’t we got enough things to be seriously worried about these days rather than allegedly prejudicial assumptions about appendage lengths? Not least because we all know that football is full of massive *****s..