Manchester United fans spent the majority of the preamble before their 3-2 win over Tottenham discussing their city rivals being on the verge of landing Erling Haaland. And then Cristiano Ronaldo issued his response.
MEN Sport have reported that City are in 'pole position' to sign Haaland from Borussia Dortmund and are ready to meet his £63m release clause but remain 'cautious' about their chances of landing the superstar with a number of other clubs circling.
The chances of United themselves signing the Norwegian striker were extremely slim but the fans' disappointment that he will head to the blue side of Manchester was assuaged by Ronaldo's majestic performance in the dramatic win over Spurs.
Ronaldo has endured a particularly difficult run of form since the appointment of Ralf Rangnick and had only scored three goals prior to tonight's hat-trick, which doubled that tally in sensational fashion.
Ronaldo scored his second-ever treble in a United shirt, opening the scoring with a shot from range which exposed Spurs' defensive limitations and secured all three points with a fantastic leaping header but it was his second goal that gave many fans what they have been imploring the Portuguese to do for weeks.
While at Borussia Dortmund, Jadon Sancho had found a lot of success creatively thanks to the movement of Haaland in the box.
When Sancho moved out wide and beat his marker, Haaland would occupy space in the box and wait for the ball to come to him before finishing it off. It was a well-oiled goalscoring engine and something that United fans were hoping could be replicated at Old Trafford.
In recent weeks, Ronaldo has seemed to prefer drifting wide and trying to pick the ball up outside the box, limiting any creative output from out wide.
But for United's second goal against Antonio Conte's side, the stars finally aligned. Sancho received the ball out wide from Nemanja Matic's expert lofted pass and Ronaldo made his run into the centre of the box behind the Spurs defence where he was superbly picked out by the English winger before slotting past Hugo Lloris with ease.
In Rangnick's 4-3-3, Ronaldo is the focal point and if he makes more runs like this throughout the rest of his time at the club he will most return to his early-season goalscoring form. Remaining central and high allows him to overcome his weaknesses and the issues that have come from the fact that he is 37 and not as mobile as he used to be.
After a number of poor performances over the past few weeks, Ronaldo has finally shown that he still has the qualities United need in attacking areas and if he can replicate this sort of performance more often for the rest of the season, then United's chances of a top-four finish and a Champions League push will increase tenfold.
