A 2-0 loss, an anonymous performance, and questions marks over his suitability for the team and readiness for the league.
Just over a month later- a 3-0 win, a statement performance, and the player has well and truly arrived in the Premier League.
For Rasmus Hojlund, the 3-0 win over West Ham United on his 21st birthday will feel particularly sweet.
A goal on his weaker foot, combined with him bossing their centre-back duo of Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd will have felt cathartic.
In the reverse fixture at the Olympic Stadium, when United lost 2-0, Hojlund arguably had the nadir of his spell at United.
He was completely sidelined from the game as he looked like a child playing against men that day.
In many ways, Hojlund’s transformation personifies the team’s attacking fortunes turning for the better when injured players have returned.
United huffed and puffed during that 2-0 loss and in the absence of any attacking structure, it felt like one should feel sorry for Hojlund instead of criticising him.
Today, the team was combining well, Hojlund was linking up with his teammates and Moyes’ strategy of repeating that deep block fell apart in the face of United’s attacks.
For the player, it marks the fourth consecutive game in which he has scored. When United last faced West Ham, he was still scoreless in the league after nearly more than 10 games.
That duck has been broken and it looks like the floodgates have opened instead.
The Dane is now looking like a man on a mission to have revenge games on teams who nullified him with extreme ease when United weren’t clicking as a system.
West Ham are just the first victims? United fans would hope so
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