Old Trafford filled slowly on a Tuesday evening in late September, the floodlights already burning white against a sky that hadn't fully given up on daylight, and the stadium announcer's voice rolled out over the pitch as the teams finished their final stretches.
Red shirts moved through the warm-up in loose, overlapping patterns near the halfway line, while across the turf the away end had turned a deep Crystal Palace blue, flags snapping whenever the wind caught them.
Camera operators tracked along the touchline, pausing on faces the broadcast wanted the country to recognize, and somewhere behind the dugout a groundsman finished his last pass with the line-marker before jogging clear of the box.
"Manchester United, ladies and gentlemen," the announcer began, and the crowd noise rose in a practiced wave that dipped and swelled with each name.
