Perhaps the most telling moment of Manchester United’s comeback against Roma was at the final whistle. The camera focused on Michael Carrick, who shook the hand of Gian Piero Gasperini before looking around trying to remember what you’re meant to do after a victory. The camera then cut to the director of football, Jason Wilcox, and chief executive, Omar Berrada, clapping with two of the most ashen faces you could imagine – as if it was a minute’s applause in the 87th minute for a lifelong octogenarian fan who died peacefully in his sleep earlier in the week (most probably not at a United game but you couldn’t rule it out).

Of course there are rules about smiling when you are involved with a failing football club. Players can’t be seen to be enjoying themselves in the week after a defeat, managers have to be earnest at almost all times, apart from when a journalist’s phone goes off at a press conference – a moment of sporting hilarity on a par with a pigeon landing on Centre Court.

So it stands to reason that Wilcox and Berrada were right not to be shirtless, swirling their Ineos gilets around their heads at full time. Same goes for the other one, also known as head of recruitment Christopher Vivell, who has borrowed Rodri’s cloak of invisibility for this whole saga. Of all the free passes going in the game at the moment, he is playing a blinder.

But were they so solemn because they’d just agreed terms with Unai Emery at half-time (don’t sue me, Nassef – that was clumsy, wrong and tongue-in-cheek, keep on keeping on, keep on ascending, lots of love xoxoxox)? You couldn’t blame them. And 45 minutes later United are BACK. It was an astonishing turnaround. Where has that front-foot, aggressive football been?

There was quite a lot of luck - a soft penalty missed and retaken, a wild miskick, Roma missing a hatful of chances before the break. All those moments could have signalled the end.

It is unlikely that the penalty is Carrick’s Mark Robins/Adrian Heath moment, but win at home against Aston Villa on Sunday and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he turns the season around. It is also not beyond the realms of possibility that United are so badly run that they get a lucky win over Villa, stick with Carrick and revert to what we’ve seen and end up surviving Spurs-style on the last day.

You will have heard every pundit mention the hierarchy waiting for the international break to make the call. Perhaps Sim Jim Ratcliffe saw how much content Manchester City gave us in the previous one and wants the column inches.

But it isn’t only Carrick who will be sweating while watching a repeat of Pointless Celebrities or whatever else is in place of Match Of the Day when the Premier League has a week off. There are realistically five managers who may not be in place when we all return.

From the bottom up: Régis Le Bris at Sunderland, who host good-at-attacking-bad-at-defending Chelsea on Sunday. This would be a classic case of victim of your own success. Qualify for Europe for the first time in more than 50 years, fail to recruit adequately, then chuck out the manager who achieved that success. But if Bromley can get rid of Andy Woodman, anything is possible.

If you want evidence all is not well at the Stadium of Light, a friend recently took a posh taxi in Yarm that had No 34 embroidered into all the seats, plus three screens and the night sky on the ceiling. If Granit Xhaka is selling his personalised Renault Espace, perhaps Le Bris has lost the dressing room. Either that or Granit’s just embroidered a Hummer. Look I don’t have many sources, so I can only work with what I’ve got.

In 19th position: Oliver Glasner and Nottingham Forest. A tricky home game with Manchester City* late on Saturday afternoon. His “too many compromises” comments reminded me of a baffling perfume advert from the 2010s where a man announces at a press conference that he’s no longer going to be the man he’s expected to be any more, ignoring the fact none of us know what he was expected to be in the first place. Was Glasner talking about the players or the looming presence in the directors’ box? Is Evangelos Marinakis insisting on taking the rondos? Or has Glasner spent the past three months telling Liam Delap to try to take a bit off it and opt for placement, with Delap resolute in using every bit of his “shot power – 99” at every opportunity?

In 18th: Pierre Sage at Crystal Palace. He doesn’t have a lot going for him. I can’t speak for everyone, but let me try. No one watched how good Lens were last season under Sage and they appear worse now if shipping 9 (nine) at home to Como is anything to go by. So Sage appearing unknown and dour leads to all manner of pundits announcing how uninspiring he is. Perhaps he’s a hoot at training. Palace have sold a lot of good players and replaced them with not as good players, which feels like a risk. Yet you fear for him, you really do.

And then there’s Matthias Jaissle at Newcastle. Could defeat at Fulham spell the end for him? The common theme appears to be selling the spine of a team and expecting a new guy to deliver. And yet there is a disconnect between him and the fans. We call for managers to be given time, but what if you give time to the wrong guy? Jaissle has a good reputation but even Geordies still completely invested in the PIF project probably didn’t watch too many of his Al-Ahli games over the past three years.

So we are left with five managers on the brink, all ready for a massive payout for not doing a great job – something I’ve been attempting to get for 20 years of mid-level broadcasting, sadly to no avail. All the while Sean Dyche’s agent is cartwheeling around a golf club in the East Midlands adding zeros to his next deal. Football really is ridiculous when you step back and think about it.