As a brilliant, breathless, brainless goal fest drew to a close, an eerie silence descended upon Old Trafford. No-one could quite believe what they had witnessed, least of all the players of Manchester United and Bournemouth.
They wandered around the pitch in a daze, acknowledging the appreciation of fans who had fallen almost silent after 98 minutes of madness and mayhem that ended all square.
A week after putting on a show for the cameras in a rather chaotic 4-1 win at Wolves, this was another manic Monday for United but on another level altogether.
Three times they led, playing the best attacking football their fans have seen for a while, certainly during Ruben Amorim’s first year in charge.
Old Trafford lapped it up, at least until Bournemouth began tearing up the script and ripping apart their team’s flimsy defence.
The visitors arrived here without a goal in more than four hours of football. However, they had scored three on each of their last two visits to Old Trafford, and incredibly got another four yet still couldn’t win for the first time in seven games.
Maybe this is why Amorim has stuck to a system he knows so well. Maybe this is why the United boss prefers to stay in his lane.
On a night when he tinkered for once and took off the handbrake, United hit top gear but careered headlong into an excellent Bournemouth who simply refused to roll over.
It means United move up to sixth place, but once again wasted an opportunity to break into the Premier League’s top-five.
There was certainly something different about them, both in how they set up and how they set about taking the game to Bournemouth from the very start.
With Diogo Dalot alternating between full-back and wing-back on the left, Amorim compromised on his trusted back-three. Up front, United had two, three and even four attackers at any given time as Amad Diallo, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha swarmed all over the visitors.
United had six shots in the opening 10 minutes, their most in a league game in more than three years. By the 20th minute, it was 10 attempts and they had a richly-deserved lead.
Diallo started and finished the move but Dalot made the telling contribution, cutting in from the left and delivering a cross to the edge of the six-yard box. Cunha went for it and at the very least put off Djordje Petrovic who got his left hand to the ball which bounced up invitingly for Diallo to head over the line on his last appearance before going to the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast.
Mbeumo will join him and the Cameroon international will be another big loss for Amorim. United’s £71million summer signing was a constant threat and went close to scoring a sensational volley from Cunha’s sublime pass.
Until the 40th minute, Bournemouth’s only effort on goal was Marcus Tavernier’s free header straight at Senne Lammens from close-range.
But having relinquished the lead at Wolves after dominating the first half, United did it again and it was the ‘special player’ Amorim had warned his players about who did the damage.
Mason Mount passed back to Luke Shaw who was barged off the ball by Justin Kluivert on the left touchline, and suddenly Antoine Semenyo was off.
The Ghana international – perhaps a little fortunate to only be booked for grabbing Dalot by the throat – accelerated away from Mount into the box and picked his spot before beating Lammens with a shot off the far post.
United dusted themselves down to regain the lead again in first half injury-time, scoring from a corner for the seventh time this season.
Bruno Fernandes delivered from the left and found Casemiro who had peeled away from Adrien Truffert and was unmarked to meet with a downward header that Petrovic should really have prevented creeping inside his near post.
It had been an exhilarating half of football and Bournemouth were level within 37 seconds of the restart. Tavernier’s pass picked out Evanilson racing between the young defensive pairing of Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven, and the Brazilian took one touch before drilling in a low shot.
Five minutes later, Casemiro brought down Tavernier in full flight on the edge of the box to earn the booking that means he will miss Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa along with the Afcon trio.
Worse still, Tavernier picked himself up to swerve a free kick through the United wall and inside Lammens’ right-hand post.
Amorim’s side levelled with an even better free kick in the 77th minute as Bruno Fernandes guided the ball into the top corner from 20 yards after Adam Smith was penalised for handball.
Then Benjamin Sesko, returning off the bench after a four-match absence, surged forward and squared into the middle where Truffert got the ball caught under his feet, and Cunha beat Petrovic to put United ahead for a third time.
But Bournemouth weren’t done either. In the 84th minute, Alex Jimenez managed to get the ball to Junior Kroupi inside the box and he got the eighth of the night before launching into a somersault celebration.
It’s more than 40 years since United lost a league game at home after leading at half-time, but David Brooks almost broke that sequence at the 394th attempt when he forced Lammens into two excellent saves at the end of an extraordinary night.
