Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will reach a minor milestone before the end of the season. His 145th game in charge of Manchester United will make him their longest-serving manager since Alex Ferguson. To put it another way, it will take him one past Jose Mourinho.

Twenty-eight months into his reign, Solskjaer's appeal still lies partly in the fact he is not Mourinho. In his caretaker reign, he defined himself in part as the anti-Mourinho, an antidote to the toxic negativity the Portuguese produced. His upbeat demeanour, almost naive optimism and love of all things United rendered him the endearing opposite of his predecessor.