It can be strongly argued that it has only been since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer came in as manager at the tail end of last year that Paul Pogba has truly looked worthy of the humongous £86 million fee it required Manchester United to part with to bring him back from Juventus almost three years ago.
The past two months have been a breeze with the Baby Faced Assassin, and no man seems to have enjoyed it more than Il Polpo.
The Frenchman was once again at the heart of a swashbuckling Manchester United side that saw off Chelsea in the FA Cup and progress through to the Quarter-Finals of the competition.
Pogba was provider and scorer in the 2-0 result and means he has now been directly involved in 15 goals in 12 games in all competitions under Solskjaer (nine goals, six assists). This is incredibly six more than he managed in 20 games under Jose Mourinho this season (5 goals, 4 assists).
He’s already tallied his best ever return in Red, and well on course to better his season-high assist mark, 15, achieved in Turin in the 2015/16 season, as well as get his hands on more silverware;
“Last year we didn’t win any trophies, and I still remember that,” said the 25-year-old in the wake of the victory at Stamford Bridge, and the first time United have come away with a win since October 2012.
In a dirge of tough fixtures, however, none get more difficult for this resurgent Manchester United than most hated rivals Liverpool, who are currently mounting their strongest title charge seen in the Premier League era and travel to the Theatre of Dreams this weekend
How Manchester United fans - of which Solskjaer can well be included - would delight in thrusting a spanner in the works at Old Trafford on Sunday by taking important points off Jurgen Klopp’s aspiring side.
Pogba himself will have extra incentive, bearing in mind Sky Sports pundit and Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher’s now questionable comments about Pogba that have humorously resurfaced and now look retrospectively fantastically fallacious.
Back in September Carra wrote that the majority of United fans would think that with a Mourinho departure, we’d be treated to a ‘new Paul Pogba’;
You won't, I can assure Man Utd fans, you won't.
Nobody plays for two years and all of a sudden there's a change of manager and you're a new player. We've seen what Paul Pogba is as a player.
He's not as good as he thinks he is. He's got talent, but his big problem is his understanding of the game. It's been a problem since he came, and it hasn't changed now.
Don't be expecting a different player if Jose Mourinho leaves Manchester United. You won't get it.
What a difference a few months makes! Under Solskjaer, Pogba is striding along the path to claim that he deserves to be considered as one of the best central midfielders in the game today.
Another world-class performance and three points against the team-that-would-be-king - and gleefully Carra's team at that - should satisfy that ambition for the Man Utd star further, whilst making the pundit spit out his misguided musings.
