In the Premier League, a physically powerful looking Manchester United side have made an excellent start to the season.
And in Europe, their Champions League group is not daunting with Thursday's draw pitting them against Benfica, FC Basel and CSKA which looks like something Jose Mourinho's side can negotiate.
And they received a further boost hours earlier with the news that they had re-signed last season's top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic who will be available for action later in the campaign once he recovers from a serious knee injury.
John Giles rates the veteran former Sweden international highly but as he told Off The Ball, while Ibrahimovic excelled individually last season, it wasn't always to the benefit of the team.
"My honest take on Ibrahimovic is that Ibrahimovic was good for Ibrahimovic when he was playing for Manchester United last year but he wasn't actually good for the team," he explained.
"Ibrahimovic played deep all the time. There was nobody who was running behind players, so when it came to him, he'd get it and then he'd get up to the box. It suited him. But when you look at Manchester United when he was scoring the goals, which was great for him, there's nobody else scoring goals. So I think overall he wasn't good for the team.
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"Now, that sounds ridiculous when the fella scored 20-odd goals, 'it has to be good for the team'. But not if the others aren't doing their stuff because while he was coming deep and pleasing himself and getting on the ball, letting it go, sometimes he wouldn't get into the box. But the rest of the players, he wasn't making any goals for anybody. So there was no balance in the team. Now you've got Lukaku who's really up front."
John also feels the decision to bring Ibrahimovic back is also borne of sentiment and gratitude for what he did last season when he scored 28 goals in all competitions.
"I think they're being generous and very respectful to him for what he did last year before he was injured. I think there's an element of sentiment that you don't normally see in football," he said.
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