Comparing United's 9-0 hammerings

Only once has this feat been matched since the inception of the division in 1992 - with the Saints on the receiving end again, at home to Leicester City, in October 2019.

Both of our wins came at Old Trafford but how do they compare?

For a start, on 4 March 1995, there were not only fans inside the stadium but it was the highest attendance of the league campaign so far to witness Alex Ferguson's side turn on the style.

Ipswich were deeply mired in the drop zone, sitting second from bottom in the table, and they would, ultimately, be relegated at the end of the season. The Saints were 11th after matchweek 21 and have picked up some notable scalps this season, including beating Liverpool and knocking holders Arsenal out of the Emirates FA Cup last month.

FIRST HALF

Southampton were reduced to 10 men after only 79 seconds when Alex Jankewitz was red-carded for lunging at Scott McTominay. Ipswich, however, played the entire game with their full complement of players.

Sixteen minutes had elapsed in 1995, when Mark Hughes played the ball back to the edge of the box for Roy Keane to bury a low drive past Craig Forrest. United's opener in 2021 came two minutes later, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka converting a cross from Luke Shaw. Both efforts went in off a post.

There were only 60 seconds between the timing of Cole's sliding finish (24 minutes) to cap a brilliant run down the left by Ryan Giggs and Marcus Rashford's well-placed shot (25 minutes) from Mason Greenwood's accurate centre. Jan Bednarek's own goal for Southampton came on 34 minutes, when he turned in Rashford's dangerous ball across the box, while our third in 1995, again through Cole after Hughes's acrobatic scissor-kick hit the bar, arrived marginally later (37 minutes).

We were 4-0 to the good at the interval on Tuesday, thanks to Edinson Cavani's superb header from another Shaw cross, going one better than our counterparts 26 years ago.

SECOND HALF

While the Reds took some time to start scoring again after the break, perhaps readjusting after withdrawing Shaw and Cavani, who had been key figures in the opening 45 minutes, Ferguson's men went for the jugular with two goals inside a minute (53 and 54). Denis Irwin's right-wing cross was headed in by Cole, although there may have been a suspicion that it actually went in off Frank Yallop, before more devilish dribbling by Giggs teed up his Wales colleague Hughes to ram in off the underside of the bar at the far post.

Five minutes later, Brian McClair released the irrepressible Giggs and, although his shot cannoned off Craig Forrest, Hughes rose to nod in number six. It was 7-0 six minutes later, as Cole grabbed his fourth with a left-foot finish, after Forrest thwarted McClair. So our 2021 side had some catching up to do, at this point, but two goals in two minutes helped to this effect. First, substitute Anthony Martial showed great control and composure to smash past Alex McCarthy from an angle and then McTominay rifled home from outside the box.

Back to 1995, and a controversial goal by Paul Ince that, no doubt, would have been scrutinised by VAR had it been in operation. Town keeper Forrest handled outside his area and, although arguably fortunate to escape with a yellow card, he was still arguing with referee Graham Poll when Ince wrestled the ball from him and chipped into an empty net. Back to a world where VAR does exist and there was great deliberation over Bednarek's foul on Martial, with referee Mike Dean awarding a penalty but consulting the video monitor before sending the defender off.

Bruno Fernandes stroked in the spot-kick as the Reds were to show the nine-men visitors no mercy. Meanwhile, in 1995, Cole claimed his fifth to complete the scoring with a minute remaining, swivelling to score when Ince headed down a Giggs corner. 

This week, there was time for Martial to grab his second with more sharp shooting from a Wan-Bissaka centre and fellow substitute Daniel James flicked in the ninth in the dying seconds of the three minutes of allotted time when Fernandes headed it into his path.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

United missed out on the league title on the final day of a dramatic season, when being held 1-1 at West Ham. The Reds were still without suspended Eric Cantona, following his assault on a spectator at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park, and Blackburn Rovers took the trophy despite losing to Liverpool at Anfield in the final game.

We would recover to do the Double in the following campaign, with Cantona the driving force. What follows in 2021 is up to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Reds but the win lifted us level on 44 points with Manchester City at the top of the table, although the Blues not only have better goal-difference but two games in hand.

Watch the extended highlights from Tuesday and the full match against Ipswich in 1995 in our MUTV On-demand section.