Manchester United players are still in celebration mode after beating Manchester City to win the FA Cup on Saturday afternoon.
Few were giving United a chance against City, but this more proof of the game not being played on paper.
Erik ten Hag produced an almost perfect gameplan, stifling City and causing a major threat in transition.
This was one of United’s best performances of the season and it may just be enough to convince Ineos to keep Ten Hag after all.
United have been through a testing season; a major drop-off in the Premier League, an early European exit, a seemingly season-long injury crisis.
Ending on a high at Wembley was the least the United fans deserved after a largely forgettable campaign – and it’s something the United squad clearly enjoyed too.
Kobbie Mainoo on Rasmus Hojlund celebrations
These United players have been criticised all season and will have certainly known that few pundits were predicting a United victory.
To then beat City – and deservedly so – will have felt so sweet to most of the United squad as they celebrated on the famous Wembley pitch.
There were even wilder celebrations later on Saturday night and striker Rasmus Hojlund seemed to be at the centre of it.
Hojlund is a boyhood United fan and winning a trophy at Wembley will have meant so, so much to him.
Footage emerged over the weekend showing Hojlund celebrating wildly, bouncing and dancing around whilst even trying to get goalkeeper Andre Onana involved.
Hojlund has now taken to social media to share photos of him singing whilst wearing sunglasses and celebrating with the FA Cup trophy alongside Scott McTominay.
The Dane noted that United fans ‘seem to like some afterparty footage’, hence providing some more photos from what sounds like a crazy weekend.
Teammate Kobbie Mainoo responded with just one word after witnessing Hojlund’s celebrations – ‘madman’.
McTominay went in another direction by calling Mainoo a ‘hero’, whilst Harry Maguire was simply left laughing at the striker.
Mainoo and Hojlund need to take his feeling forward
The first major trophy for any young player is a big moment but especially for Mainoo and Hojlund.
Mainoo has come up in the United ranks and will have been desperate to help get the club back on track.
The teenager has been simply outstanding this season and having tasted that success on Saturday, he must now use that to really push for that same feeling again in the future.
The same goes for Hojlund, a boyhood United fan who has been on a meteoric rise.
Hojlund rapidly went from the fringes of the FC Copenhagen side to United’s first-choice striker in the space of 18 months, via Sturm Graz and Atalanta.
This has been an up-and-down first campaign at United for Hojlund but he has finished the season with a trophy.
Hojlund clearly enjoyed his weekend and will hopefully enjoy that feeling of success so much that he gets the bug for winning trophies.
Mainoo and Hojlund are key to the United future and this success can’t just be a joyous end to a tricky season – it must be the platform for more trophies for both players.