Manchester United determined to maintain their momentum after eye-catching win over CSKA Moscow

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It was a result and a performance that would have resonated across Europe. For more than six years Manchester United were either bit-part players in the Champions League or they were absent from Europe’s elite competition.

It was not just that they won 4-1 in Moscow, it was the way in which they did it, epitomised by the demeanour of CSKA’s manager, Viktor Goncharenko, who confessed he felt “destroyed” by the movement and the pace of Manchester United’s front three of Martial, Mkhitaryan and Lukaku.

All the plans he had made, all the warnings he had given had been ruined, not just by the errors committed by CSKA Moscow’s ageing defence but by the sheer speed of United’s play.

There should, however, be a couple of warnings amid all the superlatives. The back three of Chris Smalling, Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof were penetrated almost as easily as CSKA’s defence and they will face better teams in the new year.

You could also point out that the last time Manchester United played this well away from home in the Champions League was under David Moyes in a game that saw them crush Bayer Leverkusen 5-0.

Ashley Young was a member of Moyes’s squad that travelled out to the Rhineland in November 2013. On arriving back, United drew at Tottenham, lost at home to Everton and then presented Newcastle with their first win at Old Trafford since 1972.

There is rather more depth and stability to Jose Mourinho’s squad. The Manchester United manager confirmed that Paul Pogba, Phil Jones and probably Marouane Fellaini would miss Saturday’s game against Crystal Palace. They would still be confident of winning comfortably.

“We have to keep this momentum going,” said Young, who captained Manchester United in Moscow.

“When you are playing with confidence throughout the team it’s fantastic and when you have boys coming off the bench (like Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard) the squad looks very healthy.

“You see the way the training is; it is fast, it is aggressive. Everyone wants to win, everyone has a winning mentality and that is what we are taking into games now. I think that helps. For example, last season we went to Southampton and drew but this season we managed to get the three points. We had to defend and we dug deep but we won.”

That he wore the armband demonstrated that Young is one of the great survivors at Old Trafford. He arrived from Aston Villa in 2011 as a winger and, every summer since, his departure has been predicted, always wrongly. However, Young joined Manchester United just before the club entered its post-Ferguson decline.

The Champions League campaign under Moyes that saw United narrowly beaten in the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich was as far as he was to go in six years at Old Trafford. A semi-final this season did not seem an unreasonable expectation in the afterglow of victory in Moscow.

“It is exciting times here and I want to be part of that success,” he said. “You want to be part of the success and for me Manchester United is that club. It is the most successful club in England and, hopefully, we can add to the trophies we won last season.

“We were delighted to win what we won – the Europa League and the League Cup – but you play in the big competitions to win them and we are now looking to win the Champions League, the Premier League or the FA Cup. I think we have the squad to do that.”