Cristiano Ronaldo tilted his head towards the sky and threw his arms up in frustration as Southampton’s Romain Perraud cleared his low effort off the line during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
The pained reactions are becoming a familiar sight. Ronaldo scored 14 times in the first half of the campaign but his failure to find the net against Saints took him to six games without a goal.
It is his longest drought at club level since the 2008/09 campaign.
A six-game barren run would not be much cause for alarm in most cases but Ronaldo is different. The 37-year-old has set himself extraordinarily high standards having scored 688 goals in 923 club games. He is subjected to more scrutiny than most.
United are 5th on the EPL table with 40 points after 24 games.