On the day our legendary goalkeeper Petr Cech broke the Premier League clean sheets record (and helped Arsenal to at least temporarily occupation of the top spot in the table), young Thibaut Courtois finally got his first of the season (and helped Chelsea up to a lofty 14th, three points above the relegation zone). Unsurprisingly, given our customary defensive foibles, he had to get help from the woodwork and still needed to perform a minor miracle to notch the clean sheet.
Courtois might be forgiven if he felt a bit aggrieved that all his hard work didn't bear three points, but he absolved Nemanja Matic for missing the most glorious chance, and concentrated on the improvement he's seeing in Chelsea's "flow".
"They wanted to win in front of their fans. From the start they put high pressure on us. Without a striker, it wasn't easy for us to find depth but we had chances and David [de Gea] played well. The team showed progression, which was good."
"You cannot think it's not possible to get relegated, but we look forward, and we think that soon we will get the winning flow."
"It's a pity Matic doesn't score. It's more difficult for us than last year, but I think we are getting into a flow to win games."
Courtois's selective memory has clearly repressed all of the first half already. But while a 0-0 at Old Trafford is never anything to sneeze at, United were certainly there for the taking. Even as horrendously as Chelsea played, as disjointed and inaccurate we were in attack and possession, we still carved out a couple glorious opportunities. Imagine if we actually had demonstrated some coherence, too!
As it's become the theme over the past few weeks, even if the underlying performances or the results themselves are improving slowly, or even if we're just get massively unlucky at times, our early season form has left us with no room for error. Every dropped point now bring us closer to the prospect of a relegation scrap, rather than a comfortable mid-table finish. Whatever this mysterious "flow" is, we need to find now and we need to hold onto to it for a while. Mathematically, Europe may still be a possiblity, but realistically, we need just ensure that we're not sweating the final few weeks of the season.