When Manchester United officially confirmed their line-up to host league-leaders Chelsea, head dropped and eyes rolled among Manchester United fans.
No Ibrahimovic? No Mkhitaryan? No Carrick? This one was over before it started for most.
Instead, those (justifiably) pessimistic fans turned jubilant when Marcus Rashford put the home side in front after just 7 minutes, an unusual feeling as the team very rarely score within the first 20 minutes.
Rashford may have had his name up in lights early on, but the sublime assist from Ander Herrera was an indication that everything positive about United on the day was about to come through the Spaniard.
Jamie Carragher made the point that Herrera's assist, after the ball had clearly stuck his hand, was the first time he had taken his eyes off Eden Hazard, and he was right. Mourinho deployed Herrera to stifle the creativity of arguably the best player in the league this season, and he did that extremely well as the Belgian was barely involved.
But it is very rare to see someone playing the midfield destroyer role pop up with a goal and an assist.
Ander Herrera's first half by numbers vs. Chelsea:
100% aerial duels won
24 passes
3 fouls
2 tackles won
2 interceptions
1 assist
? pic.twitter.com/KcqZiIzVmd— Squawka Football (@Squawka) April 16, 2017
Herrera was absolutely everywhere. Coming in to the game there was no talk of the Spaniard possibly hoping to redeem himself after having cost his team badly in the FA Cup fixture at Stamford Bridge, but it was clear that the man himself was determined to put things right.
And he did. His assist was sublime, regardless of the referee's decision to allow play to continue, and it's not the first time he has shown himself to have absolutely wonderful judgement in terms of the weight of a pass. And that's what was so impressive about Herrera on the day, not only did he showcase his value to the team going forward, but he was an absolute rock in defense as well.
Whether it was denying the ball to Hazard all day, sliding in for important interventions in his own penalty area, or pressing high, Herrera outshone N'Golo Kante, one of the best defensive midfielders the Premier League has seen, and Nemanja Matic, who really may as well have not been playing.
For fans of rival clubs, Herrera is a snide lowlife who loves nothing more than waving an imaginary yellow card or embellishing contact, but that only makes him more loved by Manchester United fans, who know that his qualities are vitally important to their side. "He's a bastard, but he's our bastard".
It speaks volumes that Marcus Rasford was not chosen as man of the match, as he was electrifying throughout, but Gary Neville was correct to award it to Herrera, who he described as the heart of United on the day.
The whole team were excellent, and there were shades of Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan side of 2008 in the way the forced Chelsea into mistakes with relentless pressure, but as it was comfortably their best performance of the season, and Ander Herrera set the standard, proving his importance to the club.
While he has put in some great performances in a United shirt, that was comfortably his best for the club.
