Michael Carrick, for once, has something other than desperate calamity to talk about for the next few days. The build-up to Sunday’s game here against Aston Villa will instead be dominated by reflections on the kind of unlikely and fabulous drama we used to witness at Old Trafford all the time.

A comeback so thrilling and raw and visceral that it will have kept his players up all night, Carrick at last has something to cling to as he tries to drag Manchester United’s season back from the jaws of hell.

How do we describe this game? Maybe just with the facts.

Carrick’s side were so bad in the first half it was almost impossible to understand. However awful they have been this season, this was worse. Two down to early goals from Matias Soule and Donyell Malen, United presented both to Roma on a plate.

The game looked over. Carrick’s reign felt over. In the crowd they waved green and gold balloons in protest at the owners the Glazers.

But somehow, almost impossibly, this game changed. Whether it will be enough to prompt a genuine change in the course of United’s season, only time will tell. The chances are it won’t. There is too much wrong. But let’s see.

United were lucky, too. They were lucky to be given an early second-half penalty and lucky that Bruno Fernandes was given the chance to take it again after he missed the first one. They were then lucky in the 83rd minute when Matheus Cunha was handed an equaliser by a defensive howler.

But luck is no good if you don’t ride it. And the winning goal Cunha delivered into the net at the near post with four minutes left was born of desire, desperation and perhaps some anger after the pain of the last few weeks. Within a second, the Brazilian’s shirt was off and he was in the crowd.

It was hard to blame Cunha, even if he was to pay a price. Booked for that, he was cautioned again for a foul that soon followed and was forced to leave the scene early. At least it was to an ovation. We have not heard one of those here for a while.

Earlier, Old Trafford had been flat for a while. United, for once, resisted the urge to blow their own toes off early on as they had done in conceding poor early goals at Atletico Madrid and Como in previous European away games.

But the problem with this team is that it only takes one spark to light a fire big enough to burn the house down. So it was once again here.

There was nothing in this game for the first ten minutes and then it all went wrong once again. From safety to dire straits and the verge of mutiny in the space of seven minutes.

The first Roma goal was extraordinary. When United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo lost the ball in his own half, his team found themselves a defender short. Diogo Dalot, the left back, was so far upfield he may as well have been holding a balloon on the Stretford End.

Quite why this was the case nobody knew but when Rodrigo Mora switched the ball across into the space where Dalot should have been, Soule had time to cut inside and shoot low in to Senne Lammens’ bottom left hand corner.

It was one of those goals that looked stranger the more you studied it. Six minutes later, United presented Roma with another one.

Again confusion reigned at the back and once again Dalot was out of position as the ball reached the goalscorer on the edge of the penalty area.

This time only a sliding block from Leny Yoro denied Soule his second goal. Sadly for the United defender, the ball had struck his raised arm and former Aston Villa forward Malen slid in the penalty.

Around Old Trafford, mutiny hung in the air. Aswell as their balloons, some fans had brought tennis balls with them too. As they were hurled on to the field, the only surprise was that one of the United players didn’t welly one into his own net.

As half-time neared, Malen brought a low save from Lammens before Soule curled one from 18 yards that must have missed the left hand post by no more than six inches.

That was the difference between United being out of the game and still in with the chance of the kind of comeback an early second half goal would bring.

Sure enough, Old Trafford soon got the lift it wanted. Cunha seemed fortunate to be awarded a penalty just before the hour – he seemed to trip himself up – while Fernandes’ first spot-kick was saved by former Sheffield Wednesday keeper – and Roma’s third choice – Devis Vasquez. VAR spotted encroachment by three Roma defenders, though, and Fernandes smashed the retake high into the net.

Roma now faced a different home team and indeed a different environment. Immediately, United almost levelled. Cunha played Bryan Mbeumo clear and his lifted shot seemed destined to find the net only for the ball to strike both posts and somehow stay out.

Without doubt United were lucky to back in it. Two big moments had gone their way. Their response was nevertheless appropriate. Finally we saw some energy and belief and fundamental desire.

Camped now in the Roma half, United attempted to lay siege. Harry Maguire’s header from a corner bounced off an opponent. From the next one, the ball ran free near the goal line and a defender hacked clear. United were soon appealing for a penalty at the far post but instead Roma got a free-kick. It was now that kind of game.

Vasquez saved low from Cunha with 18 minutes left but United had to wait another six minutes for the ending that matched anything we have seen here for quite some time.

A cross from Fernandes should have been cleared by Roma defender Leonardo Balerdi but his right foot connected only with air and Cunha slid the ball in from six yards.

Roma were by now a shell of the team that they had been in the first half. And when Cunha unleashed his shot from an angle three minutes later they were dead.