Erik ten Hag is hardly famed for his disciplinarian approach, but the Manchester United manager's decision to make his players come in on their day off after a particularly humiliating defeat appears to be working.
Few could forget United's 4-0 thumping at the hands of Brentford back in August when the Red Devils were outrun by their west London counterparts by an astonishing 13.8km. In response, Ten Hag made his side come into their Carrington training base and run the extra 8.5 miles they were outrun by the day before.
On that memorable day in Brentford, United's collective running distance was 95.6km. What followed was a remarkable turnaround in form, with Ten Hag overseeing an impressive four-game winning run after the defeat by the Bees.
The Red Devils toppled the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal in the same streak before it was brought to an abrupt end by local rivals Manchester City, who battered them 6-3 at the Etihad. Their home form since the opening-day loss against Brighton has been impressive.
United have beaten fellow big-six rivals Arsenal, Liverpool and most recently Tottenham at the Theatre of Dreams, with the 2-0 win over Spurs producing a notable improvement in their running statistics.
Data shows that the Red Devils covered a whopping 114.5km against Antonio Conte's men - an 18.9km increase on the Brentford debacle.
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To put their recent improvement in results entirely down to the amount of running the United players are doing would be disingenuous, but it has certainly helped as they look to dominate their opponents.
Ten Hag's side barely took their foot off the neck of Spurs on Wednesday night, managing to muster up an astonishing 28 shots on goal - 19 of which came during the first-half alone.
The United boss struggled to contain his delight after the game, telling reporters: "I think you see today we developed and you can see in the last weeks we are growing in the season and becoming more proactive in and out of possession.
"First you get the organisation in and out of possession, then you dictate the intensity and that is what we did today.
"To be fair, I did not expect it before because Spurs have been solid this season, it was a magnificent performance and I hope we set a new base for the season. There were so many things that were good, but in possession, the switch of play and how we dictated the play and created chances."
United's ability to dictate the tempo of the play stemmed from both their prowess in possession and their tireless running from the first whistle until the last.
