Why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can only be cautiously optimistic about Manchester United’s form

If Solskjaer’s time has taught us anything, it is not to get carried away by a run of good results

After waiting 232 days for an away win, Manchester United have three in less than a week. Victories at Partizan Belgrade, Norwich City and Chelsea mean they have won as many games in the space of six days as they had since the start of the season home or away. A team supposedly in crisis have only suffered one defeat in their last eight.

The temptation is to think that a corner has been turned and that, with a quarter of the campaign already gone, United have survived a challenging start. But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is of the opinion that the signs of this run were there if you looked hard enough anyway. This upturn in form was always around the corner.

“That’s football,” he said on Friday. “Sometimes you get luck of the dice, sometimes you don’t. The game on Wednesday night was decided by an unbelievable strike by Marcus. In Partizan, we defended really well, some great last-ditch defending there. Norwich was a good game.

“Fine margins decide football games at this level,” he explained. “Decisions by the referee or by a player at a certain moment, you turn down a pass, you turn down a finish. It’s so much easier getting confidence or momentum by some result. At the moment, the boys look like they’re playing on instinct rather than having that split second to think.”

United do look better – or at least not as bereft as they did before the last international break. It was easy to feel after the 1-0 defeat away at Newcastle that their season was unravelling. That momentum was broken by the break itself, allowing Solskjaer and his players to regroup, rebuild and recover.

“The international break came at a great time for us,” he admitted. “We prepared for the Liverpool game and when you get a decent performance and result against the league leaders, it gives you a bit more energy. From then on the boys were happy with the work we did. The change of system helped and the coaches have done a great job.”

Results will always dictate perceptions and wins will always improve the mood. But if Solskjaer’s time in the job has taught us anything, it is not to read too much into a short, sharp injection of positive results. And though encouraging, it is fair to say that each of the three victories have only been a qualified success.

The win in Belgrade could quite easily have been a draw given United’s only shot on target was the decisive penalty. Partizan’s 14 shots on goal to United’s five tells the true story of the game. Clearly, scoring and creating chances from open play remains a problem. Both of Rashford’s goals at Stamford Bridge were from dead-ball situations.

Norwich was different. As Solskjaer says, it was a “good game” and a perfectly respectable three points. In fact, it was possibly United’s best all-round performance since he was appointed permanently. Still, it came against the top-flight’s worst defence and a side that any team with top-four ambitions would be expected to beat.

If this mini-revival is to become a fully-fledged rejuvenation of United’s fortunes, there needs to be another victory on the road at Bournemouth this weekend, preferably with a repeat of the performance at Carrow Road. The Vitality is hardly a fortress, with just one home win in five so far, but Eddie Howe’s side are more formidable opponents than Norwich and capable of troubling the top six.

That is why any optimism on United’s part can only be cautious at best. Even Solskjaer appeared to admit on Friday that his side’s form is built on shaky foundations which need to be strengthened and sustained. “The confidence is getting better. Getting players back from injury helps,” he said. “But in football it’s not very far from failure to success, or other way round.”