It’s easy to scoff at the fee paid for Martial, but the confidence in his finishing – particularly the second goal, when he had what pundits might call “almost too much time” is quite something for a young player. That’s my main takeaway from this. He looks exciting. United still have plenty to do, and you have to wonder about a team that can look as sluggish as they did for half an hour, but there are definite glimmers of promise. You still wonder about Wayne Rooney’s role, on another note. He did okay in a deep attacking position but didn’t really have any significant influence except to keep the ball moving.

Liverpool have been held 1-1 at home by Norwich, which won’t help the mood there.

That one twisted and turned, didn’t it? United were hapless for half an hour and Southampton excellent. They started seeing a little more of the ball but got slightly lucky with their equaliser when Mata seemed offside before setting up Martial’s excellent finish. Martial then put them ahead after a catastrophic backpass from Yoshida, before David de Gea made what may well be the save of the season from a Fonte header. It really was outstanding. Mata made it 3-1 and United were in absolute control, but they allowed Pelle a free header with four minutes to play and were clinging on at the end, De Gea again saving well from Wanyama. Cracking game of football that contained plenty of the unexpected.

90+4 min: Easier for De Gea there, as he takes a straight ball down the middle. Southampton have one more minute...

90+3 min: Save by De Gea from Wanyama! The Kenyan checks onto his left foot and the goalkeeper has to parry his shot behind, one-handed! Then he punches a Mane header away from the corner, and then he gathers Wanyama’s effort from the second ball. Superb work, and great drama here.

90+2 min: Chance for Tadic at the back post! An excellent delivery from the right by Mane, up goes Tadic ... but it’s wide, and it that had been Pelle hanging in the air the score would now be 3-3!

90 min: The free kick is headed back, Davis lines up to smash it towards goal ... but Long takes it away from him! He does cross the ball back in, and Pelle does get another header away, but it’s wide and you wonder why Long didn’t let Davis, who has a fine shot on him, crack one. Then McNair, oddly, surges forward on the counter and wins a United corner. There’ll be five added minutes!

89 min: Suddenly, this has gone from a United pass-fest to incessant Saints pressure, roared on by the crowd. You have to love football, don’t you? Now the home team win a dangerous free kick as Valencia fouls Wanyama on the left...

84 min: Nimit Jain asks – “Does Van Gaal has any ‘process’ in mind to keep Rooney out of the team? More of Martial and Wilson please!!”

Think I must have missed Wilson’s contribution today.

83 min: Van Dijk has an injury, maybe cramp, and Martial is sportingly holding his leg for him while the game continues. Now he’ll have some treatment, with the stretcher called on.

81 min: United are seeing this out with no bother, and Southampton just can’t keep hold of the ball here.

79 min: Depay it is, and he blasts it over. As he ran up, you could hear “Jose, get the f**k out” from the Saints’ bench.

78 min: Martial is fouled right on the edge of the box by Fonte, who is booked. Great position, perhaps for Mata?

76 min: Shane Long replaces Ward-Prowse. Final throw.

75 min: Matthew Richman again – “Now that United are two goals ahead, my sense of despair has been replaced by self-righteous indignance. Surely this can’t be football - do they really deserve to win?”

Well, much as they were shoddy for half an hour they’ve been the better side since then, so you’d have to say they probably do. It’s not been pretty but they’ve been in ... wait for it ... control.

I say that, but then Mane goes down in the area under a Smalling challenge, goes down, but Mark Clattenburg says no penalty. Booking, then? Nope, but there ought to have been – it was a really poor dive, on replay. Not good from Mane there at all.

73 min: Do Southampton have anything left? Smalling snuffs out one attack, and then Martial breaks quickly with Rooney to the left, and he’s cynically dragged over by Van Dijk, who knows he deserves a booking for that.

71 min: Emiel De Bont writes: “Martial does not look like too shabby a signing, does he? I wonder though: is Wayne Rooney on the pitch? Can’t find any mention of him in your match report, apart from the teams line-up.”

Funnily enough, as that goal went in I received another email that pretty much summed up my thoughts on Rooney today. He’s been playing very deep and seen a fair amount of the ball, but nothing has really gone forward or been dangerous. It’s been side to side and harmless. It’s not gone badly, I suppose.

67 min: United are entitled to a spot of sterile passing now, and if they keep this up they’ll close the game out well. That De Gea wondersave apart, they’ve not really been tested in this half.

66 min: Martina nearly joins the loose backpass club but Depay doesn’t anticipate and Stekelenburg can clear.

65 min: In by Depay but swung over everyone and all the way out. He’s not really been at his best. Meanwhile – Norwich equalise at Anfield with defender Russell Martin’s third goal of the season!

64 min: United are getting space on the counter should they wish to use it, although they’ve not made any clear openings yet. Depay gets to the line and wins a corner...

61 min: Carrick goes off now, and Schweinsteiger on. But make sure you see that De Gea save later. I think saves are often overstated as “brilliant” – generally a ‘keeper is just doing his job – but that was genuinely outstanding play.

59 min: Mane does really well to chase Blind, who had a 10-yard start, down and win a corner on the right. Tadic whips it in and De Gea makes an *extraordinary* save from Fonte’s near-post flick – one-handed, at speed, right under his crossbar! It was past him! That’s what you send unopenable attachments for!

57 min: Ward-Prowse’s delivery is well defended and United counter, but Davis is quickly into the action with a textbook not-underhit backpass.

56 min: Romeu is replaced by Davis, who should add more forward impetus to the home midfield. They’ve now won a corner...

Ahem. Indeed.

54 min: Ward-Prowse aims a deep free kick to Van Dijk but De Gea claims. Southampton need to clear their heads.

53 min: There’s a sense of the “typical Van Gaal United” about this – finding a way to win, however spawny it might look to the naked eye. There was, of course, a similar situation in this fixture last season when Robin van Persie scored from a loose Fonte backpass.

52 min: Danny Ings has scored for Liverpool, by the way – they lead Norwich 1-0.

50 min: Mane is clipped by Rojo, and this half has begun fairly scrappily too – if perhaps with a higher tempo than the early stages of the first.

Pelle’s goal celebration from earlier!

47 min: The Darmian/Valencia switch was apparently tactical, which might mean it was a conscious attempt to get United further on the front foot.

Second half imminent – the teams are back out. A change apiece: Antonio Valencia comes on for Darmian, while Targett – who was injured just before half time – is replaced by Martina for the home side.

“My father grimly noted that Martial is now United’s leading scorer in the league with a whopping 2,” notes Yuval Weber. A good two though, let’s be fair, and the season is yet young.

In Scotland, Aberdeen held onto that 3-1 win at Hearts and Celtic ended up hitting Dundee for six, conceding nil.

Please don’t show Van Gaal this.

At Anfield, it is Liverpool 0-0 Norwich at the break.

45+1 min: He’s up, which is good. One minute extra to be played here.

45 min: Targett is down and in pain – he seemed to slip when beaten by Martial on the right...

44 min: Southampton will be keener to hear the whistle now. It’s funny how the tone of a game can completely change.

43 min: And they nearly make it count. Mata runs along the byline, takes a short corner from Depay and cuts sharply back for Schneiderlin, pulling away 15 yards out, whose shot is deflected just wide with Stekelenburg rooted.

42 min: Mata almost intervenes decisively after Van Dijk makes a fudge of a Martial attempt to find Depay. United win a corner, which results in another....

40 min: That’s taken a bit of the sting out of Southampton, you sense. If the tempo stays slower, it’ll suit United.

39 min: David Acaster has some education for Matthew Richman – “Relegation happened in an era when any team could win the league and any team could get relegated. No longer the case. But that United side did have many depressingly mediocre players. Docherty was bringing it round by the time they went down though, and it all bore fruit in the next couple of seasons with an exciting team driven on by Hill and Coppell, two flying wingers. I see Martial has scored.”

37 min: That was the first decent thing that either United or Martial had done, but they certainly capitalised well on being allowed a tad more possession in the preceding minutes. Mata was certainly a shade offside before receiving the ball though, so let’s see how severe the consequences end up being.

34 min: United still have control of the ball, which I’m sure we’ll hear about later.

33 min: United are seeing a bit more of the ball now and Targett heads a Rojo cross away. But there’s little movement or spark, really.

32 min: Matthew Richman begs – “As I am a relatively young United fan who has only known the attacking verve of Fergie’s sides, can someone who watched the horrorshows that led to relegation tell me that it came from playing worse than this?”

31 min: Martial drifts between a couple of defenders and towards the area, and it’s a promising run but his attempt to slide Depay in is thwarted by the fact that Depay isn’t there.

30 min: Yoshida gobbles up a wayward crossfield ball by Rooney. What a time to be a Japanese sportsman on the south coast.

29 min: Mata trips Tadic a little cynically after losing out to him. It’s typical of United so far. Just second best all over.

27 min: The corner ends up dropping awkwardly in the six-yard box but Martial gets it away, and Romeu thwarts Rooney’s attempted counter.

27 min: Mane turns Darmian and gets to the right byline but his cross is smuggled away by Rojo. The two sides are operating at completely different speeds, and now Pelle wins a corner after attacking a Tadic cross.

24 min: Chance for Depay, though! Van Dijk seems to lose a ball in the sun, heading straight to Mata, and Mata crosses for Depay to get a free header away. It goes over, and perhaps the delivery was a shade high. Let’s say it was actually a half-chance, on review.

23 min: Then Ward-Prowse has more room to cross but Pelle heads well over.

23 min: Ward-Prowse has started brilliantly and intercepts a ponderous Smalling ball from the back. There’ve been a few of those.

21 min: Another tempting Ward-Prowse cross finds its way to Tadic on the left. He twists Darmian inside out before seeing a cross headed away by Carrick. Seconds later, Targett finds Ward-Prowse who this time thuds a shot straight at De Gea.

19 min: Ward-Prowse is back sharply to block Rojo’s attempted cross. Manchester United need to get through the gears here. They just haven’t got started.

18 min: But Martial gets a little space in the ‘D’ as I write that, slicing well over on the half-turn.

17 min: That could well have been two. Manchester United, for their part, are yet to have anything resembling an attack.

16 min: Pelle hits the post! He receives the ball from Romeu – I think – on the edge of the area, spins Blind and lashes one onto the outside of the frame and out. David de Gea looks furious with his defence.

12 min: And now Tadic gets away down the left after being fed by Mane. It’s a lovely ball from the Serbian and if Blind touches it, it’s an own goal. He leaves it, and Rojo has to stab the ball out for a corner, which comes to nothing.

11 min: Better there, as Pelle exposes Blind down the right, outmuscling him and putting in a cross that ends up out with Tadic just outside the area. He drags wide of the near post.

9 min: Van Dijk does well to to hold off Martial and head a long Rooney pass away from Martial. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of relationship those two drum up.

8 min: There is absolutely no tempo to this game at all. But it’s early.

7 min: Neat little flick from Memphis to tame a hard, low ball, but – as with everything in this game so far, it’s in a harmless area. Then Mane shins a cross into the stand.

5 min: Tadic tries to get onto a slide-rule ball to the byline but it’s overcooked. The light is still pleasant.

3 min: It’s a slow, scrappy start here in truth. The midfield looks as if it’ll be pretty congested and tightly contested.

2 min: Mane has started quite snappily, coming short for a ball once or twice and conceding a free kick.

2 min: Getting a lot of stadium roof from the shadows here. Isn’t the September light nice though, especially around this time of day?

Musings from Cox.

The teams are in the tunnel. Wayne Rooney looks pensive. He has moisture – sweat? water? what? – dripping down his right cheek. The goalkeepers do a matey handshake. Now they emerge...

Louis van Gaal on selecting Rojo at left-back: “Our defensive organisation was very good so we didn’t have to change too much and Rojo usually plays left side in the Argentina team.”

Ronald Koeman on selecting Yoshida at right-back: “Maya will play right back because we need to really good defender to face Memphis Depay and Soares’ qualities are more offensive.

Here is Ed Aarons’ match report from Spurs 1-0 Palace.

Stat.

Tom Harp is right to point out that, in Scotland, Aberdeen lead 3-1 at Hearts and look set to make it eight wins from eight. They’ll probably stay five points ahead of Celtic, who lead Dundee 2-0. Do we have a title race north of the border?

Another game is happening at 4pm too. Liverpool play Norwich. Assuming things aren’t too cray cray at St Mary’s, I’ll let you know when something happens at Anfield.

“I reckon that’s a front four to love for the Saints – who are they playing again?” asks Dean Kinsella. They’re playing Bernard Tomic, Dean.

So, back to this one – Wayne Rooney is back in for United, in for Ashley Young, while Morgan Schneiderlin pushes us firmly into Subplot Territory by replacing Bastian Schweinsteiger in the starting team. Michael Carrick is back, too, for Ander Herrera. Marcos Rojo, of course, replaces the unfortunate Luke Shaw.

For the Saints, Maya Yoshida, Oriol Romeu and Sadio Mane are in for Cedric Soares, Steven Davis and Jay Rodriguez.

Spurs have beaten Palace 1-0. Well done, Son Heung-min. Match report soon.

Right, here we are then. I’ve just been doing the tennis so excuse any terminology crossover. Do you see anything TO LOVE about these team selections?