The stark truth about most football fans is that they are malleable. Give them something to cheer on the field and they will go home happy and turn up again next time round. The power of the actual sport remains absolute.

So this – in the end and against all odds – was a much better day for Manchester United. It was an afternoon that began with protest and ended with a lap of honour by Ruben Amorim’s players. 

The 75,000 United supporters who were here stayed to the end and went home talking less about the Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe and more about their captain Bruno Fernandes and young central defender Ayden Heaven.

But these are difficult times at Old Trafford and if Amorim’s players wish to thank their supporters for sticking with them on a day when most had written them off before kick-off then there doesn’t seem very much wrong with that at all.

United supporters carry their loathing of their Glazers deep in their hearts. Of course they do. The Americans have rinsed a great football club for almost two decades now. 

On a day of protest against the ownership, Man United fans had something to cheer about

Bruno Fernandes gave the Red Devils the lead with a free-kick just before half-time

Declan Rice netted the equaliser for Arsenal with a brilliant strike in the second half

And their suspicion of Ratcliffe is well-founded too. It has not been a good opening innings from Ratcliffe and his Ineos friends. These are feelings that will endure.

Nevertheless, it’s the football that matters. Football fans will put up with all sorts if the team wins. 

Here, against an Arsenal team now stuck in a slow, painful process of withdrawing from the Premier League title race, United showed at that at the very least a heart still beats, however faintly at times, in the home dressing room.

United remain a team of moments and that’s rarely healthy. Here a fabulous free kick from Fernandes at the end of a first half in which they had been barely competitive gave them a lead they absolutely didn’t deserve but it was a goal that served to nudge them into a higher set of gears we rarely see from them in recent days and weeks.

They didn’t win and that was probably right. Arsenal did enough to get out of town with pride intact. 

But United played with an energy and a speed that seems far too often beyond them and had Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya not produced perhaps his best display of the season, the home team would have won this game without a doubt.

United cannot control games and it’s an enduring problem. They aren’t good enough. They don’t have the players. Until the club’s recruitment department solve that issue, they will not return to the top four places in the Premier League.

Nottingham Forest have bucked a trend by winning games without the ball but Nuno Espirito Santo’s team are the outliers and that will never be an acceptable way forward for a club like United. 

The Red Devils moved up to 14th with the point they claimed from their clash with Arsenal

Arsenal left with their pride in tact but are now 15 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool after dropping points for a third straight Premier League game

United – whoever is coaching them – must relearn what it is to dominate possession and territory. They must learn once again what it is to slowly build pressure. Until they do, they will remain stuck in the mud.

In the meantime, energy and fast counters and smart final passes and crosses must serve them and during a thoroughly entertaining second half of football, they threatened to here.

The roar of anticipation, optimism and then agony as Raya somehow kept out Fernandes’ late shot and recovered to paw the spinning ball from the goal line was like something from the glory years. 

All eyes turned to referee Anthony Taylor who, in turn, was focused on his watch, waiting for the tell-tale vibration that would indicate a ball the other side of the goal line. Agonisingly, it never came.

That would have been a season’s highlight, regardless of the fact it would have nudged the league title ever closer to their great foes at Anfield. That rivalry remains as real as ever. 

Liverpool are about to draw level with United’s total of 20 domestic titles. But winning football matches is what really counts and this is all that mattered to United and their supporters here.

Before the game they marched outside Old Trafford and the framing of their message against their club’s owners was clear and crude. We have been here before. 

We remember the anti-Glazer Green and Gold campaign of 2010 and beyond. We also remember the way that Sir Alex Ferguson and his players danced on the field after securing their last Premier League title back in 2012.

Ruben Amorim’s men improved in the second half and were unfortunate not to score a winner

The result has likely further ratified a 20th Premier League title for rivals Liverpool

It should not be Amorim’s job to paper over the cracks left by ruinous ownership at this great football club but the reality is that it is and it has been this way since 2005. Ferguson managed it. Nobody else has.

Here – with key players missing – there was evidence at least to show that Amorim’s players at least retain an interest in playing for him. It remains half the battle at whatever level you manage.

Fernandes was Amorim’s best player, as is usually the case. But young Heaven – poached recently from Arsenal – was a mighty presence as his old club pushed for a winner.

United remain 14th. West Ham will push them to 15th if they beat Newcastle on Monday. They are where they deserve to be. They still have a pulse, though. It’s something.