At Old Trafford, two halves of completely different temperature were played. Manchester United went ahead in the third minute, stayed alive until the very end, and finally sealed third place in the table with a 3:2 win over Nottingham Forest. The season closes with the feeling that United knows where it's going again - even though this same match showed the job is not done.

A goal in the third minute from a player who hadn't scored in forty-one months is the first kind of history the season started writing. Luke Shaw calmly placed the ball in the bottom corner, and suddenly his name was back in the player statistics column, not the injury column. That is more than three points for Old Trafford - it is emotional confirmation that a veteran still has something left.

In the 53rd minute, after a short corner, Rodríguez Morato levelled it at 1:1. United's reaction was fast - two minutes later Matheus Cunha beat the Forest keeper, VAR cleared a handball check on Mbeumo, and it was 2:1. Cunha's goal was a quiet reminder that United has players who can deliver in a moment.

The third goal was one for the statisticians. In the 76th minute, Bryan Mbeumo received a chipped pass from Bruno Fernandes and finished, but the real hero was the pass - his 20th assist of the season. Bruno equalled the Premier League record for most assists in a single season, a mark held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry. That is company you don't end up in by accident.

Forest did not give up. Morgan Gibbs-White made it 2:3 two minutes after the hosts' third goal, and Old Trafford lived on its nerves until the final whistle. Bruno almost broke the record outright, but Sels saved his shot in the final action. In stoppage time Diogo Dalot hit the post. Two there, two here, and that was the end.

Who remembers now that United was a meme generator for two seasons? Third place is not a title, but it is a boundary. And in this moment, the boundary between a club that is fixing itself and a club that is falling apart matters more than a trophy. The question now is whether the next season will be a pull upward or another test of the fans' patience.