There was a moment during the Manchester derby when Kobbie Mainoo, in isolation midway through City's half, threw himself to the ground.
Yes, it was in celebration, but there could have been an element of exhaustion.
The Academy product is hugely popular with the club's supporters, scoring and being voted Man of the Match in a cup final will always help with that, but he has had to be patient for opportunities this season.
Saturday was his first Premier League start of 2025/26 and, even discarding stoppage time, the 90 minutes he racked up matched his figure, in the top flight, since the start of November, with a calf injury ruling him out of action recently.
However, our no.37 looked far from rusty, with a body swerve to elude the Blues' big-money signing Antoine Semenyo, one that many a matador would be proud of, and rightly drawing a huge roar of appreciation from the crowd.
Kobbie's game has been analysed to death, the constant questions about him at press conferences had become a standing joke and it is usually forgotten he is still only 20 years old.
Yet his physical output in our 2-0 victory was pretty extraordinary and certainly a testament to the effort the whole team put into getting a positive result against Pep Guardiola's much-vaunted side.
Mainoo and skipper Bruno Fernandes hounded our neighbours throughout the brilliant victory to kickstart Michael Carrick's spell as head coach.
Opta stats show Kobbie applied 77 high pressures, with Bruno posting 81, which both register extremely highly when taking each of United's Premier League matches this term into account.
While Benjamin Sesko played like a man possessed in the home win over Sunderland, it is easy to see one of the areas where the Reds were able to overcome our opponents at the weekend.
MOST HIGH PRESSURES IN 2025/26
1. Benjamin Sesko (v Sunderland) - 95
2. Bruno Fernandes (v Chelsea) - 87
3. Bruno Fernandes (v Man City) - 81
4. KOBBIE MAINOO (v MAN CITY) - 77
4. Manuel Ugarte (v Newcastle) - 77
When you think about players who hunt down the ball, maybe Kobbie is not an obvious proponent of this particular skill and, yet, Opta's stats again illustrate just how big a part it is becoming in his game.
Only Merlin Rohl, fresh from an impressive display in Everton's surprise away win at in-form Aston Villa, is currently ahead of our homegrown midfielder, when looking at presses applied per 90 minutes played in the Premier League.
The England international breaks up a Toffees stranglehold for this metric and ranks highly.
HIGH PRESSURES PER 90 MINS
1. Merlin Rohl (Everton) - 88.7
2. KOBBIE MAINOO (UNITED) - 83.5.
3. Thierno Barry (Everton) - 82.6
4. Beto (Everton) - 82.1
5. Lukas Nmecha (Leeds) - 81.4
With the real hope that Mainoo is fresh and able to deliver such energetic performances across the remainder of the campaign, it will be fascinating if he can continue to post such high figures, particularly when the challenges facing United vary from game to game.
Next up are leaders Arsenal on Sunday, after a full week of rest and work at Carrington for Kobbie and the squad, training under the new coaching team.
The task of helping limit the impact of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Martin Odegaard and co will, no doubt, be one that he will be hoping to be assigned.