Erik ten Hag went into the last week knowing that he probably had two games to save his job as Manchester United manager.
He has won neither. But he has, also, lost neither with the fortunate 3-3 draw away to Porto in the Europa League on Thursday followed by this more encouraging goalless stalemate, also away, to Aston Villa.
It means Ten Hag’s team have accumulated the fewest points (eight) after the first seven games of the season of any United side since the start of the Premier League.
In injury-time Villa went close as Jaden Philogene’s goal-bound shot struck Diogo Dalot on the back and deflected narrowly wide. How significant will that moment prove to be? Will this result be enough?
With football now going into an international break time will soon tell but, as ever it seems with United under Ten Hag, little is clear.
“Attack, attack, attack,” chanted the United fans as goalkeeper Andre Onana appeared to time-waste with just five minutes to go and that should not be lost on the club’s hierarchy.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe joined his adviser Sir Dave Brailsford, Sir Alex Ferguson and the host of executives he hired – Omar Berrada, Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox – and it felt like they were Les Tricoteuses waiting for the guillotine to drop.
Will Ten Hag survive the chop? It is now one win in five for United and just three wins in 11 in all competitions this season and that is a truly abysmal record for a club of its resources, ambitions and expectations.
They came close to scoring, with captain Bruno Fernandes striking the crossbar with a fine free-kick, but were perhaps fortunate in facing a depleted Villa side who looked spent from their extraordinary midweek Champions League victory over Bayern Munich.
United will argue they, too, were tired after playing in Portugal 24 hours later and Ten Hag shuffled his pack – starting with six of his big signings, worth a staggering £350 million, on the bench.
They were also fortunate that Marcus Rashford was not dismissed for a petulant trip on Leon Bailey just seconds after being booked. He was substituted soon after.
There was a concern for England, ahead of their Nations League ties against Greece and Finland, with Ezri Konsa going off injured early on. His potential replacement, United’s Harry Maguire, was also hurt and had to depart at half-time.