It was Tottenham who were famously called "the Harry Kane team" by Pep Guardiola in October 2017, a comment that didn't go down well with Spurs, even if their dependence on their star striker was obvious.
It's four weeks until Guardiola brings Manchester City across town to Old Trafford for the final derby of the season and he might be tempted to revisit one of his more iconic lines from English football. Nobody at United could dispute the idea that this is "the Bruno Fernandes team" at the moment.
The surprise on Thursday was that they managed to score a goal that the captain wasn't at the heart of. He had a central part to play in their last seven before Joshua Zirkzee's strike in San Sebastian and returned to the lead role against Arsenal.
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United had barely offered an attacking threat in another desperately dull first half when Fernandes stood over a free-kick 25 yards from goal. Alejandro Garnacho had won it with a rare driving run and Fernandes stepped up to send a dipping shot over the wall and beyond the diving David Raya.
It was the 30-year-old's 91st goal for the club, to add to the 79 assists in 275 appearances. Where would they be without him? Given where they are with him, it doesn't really bear thinking about.
Fernandes has now scored two goals from free-kicks in the last five games. His set-pieces created Harry Maguire's winners against Leicester City and Ipswich and two more deliveries in that game against the Tractor Boys created scrappy goals.
His best goal of the recent run came against Fulham in the FA Cup, a wonderful left-footed strike, but United's reliance on him of late is for dead ball prowess and that has come about because they are creating so little from open play.
They hadn't laid a glove on Arsenal until the goal and again failed to commit enough bodies to attack in the first 45 minutes. Wing-backs Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui were too often forced to go backwards with their passes and with Joshua Zirkzee hanging back, there was only ever one or two players in red in the opposition penalty area.
But strangely, once they had their lead United began to improve in an attacking sense. Having become over-reliant on Fernandes because of his set-piece quality, they finally offered a threat from open play, and those wing-backs were often key to it.
Their best move came early in the second half. Zirkzee held the ball up superbly to find Dalot, who raced down the left and crossed for the other wing-back, only for David Raya to save from Mazraoui. Zirkzee then benefited from a deflection on a Garnacho cross and his flick was well saved again by Raya.
Chances still came after Declan Rice had equalised. Rasmus Hojlund took too long to get a shot away after Casemiro had won possession high up and the Dane was then foiled by a brilliant Gabriel tackle after an encouraging United move ended with Toby Collyer sliding a low ball across the six-yard box.
This is the template United must work from, rather than the dreadfully dull first-half, even if it was that period that produced the goal. In the end they could have won it deep into stoppage time.
Again a wing-back was high up the pitch, Mazraoui turning brilliantly inside the Arsenal box and then teasing in a low centre met by Fernandes. Raya dived to his right to make the save and then sprang up to claw the bouncing ball off his line.
It would have taken the roof off Old Trafford had it gone in, but although United were pegged back after the break, there was enough improvement in their play to offer some hope. Now they have to play with this kind of intent and ambition every week.
