BRITAIN’S BEST COLUMNIST FROM OLD TRAFFORD

it will be a crowning achievement to clear a path to pastures new? You can bet he does not. This is a player who believes he can still be the sort of dominant force that blew through Englishish football for moreore than a decade. A player who believes he still deserves the armband for clubub and country.

A player not ready for reflection.

After all, he does not turn 32 until October, by which time Ibrahimovic will be 36.

Yet, aside from the scruffy goal of significance, there was no indisputable evidence to o suggest the undroppable days ays will return.

He would probably fancy breaking the record against Liverpool at Old Trafford next Sunday but there is a good chance he will not start that match.

Hull at home in the League Cup on Tuesday is more realistic. But while this was no throwback to the terrorising days when he had no hair, there was enough to encourage him in his belief he can defy the common perception that his powers are on the wane. The goal was not a thingthin of beauty, diver diverting Juan Mata’s chip, but he was alwaysa a threat in the area wh where he belongs – the final th third. Of those 249 goals, 213 h have come from inside the area ( 192 with his right foot, 27 with his left foot, 30 with his head and now o one with his right knee). He belongs up front. The long-term future, of cou course, belongs to Marcus Rashf Rashford, who, with the help of