At Craven Cottage on a September evening, Manchester United's season revealed itself in miniature: a club caught between the weight of its own history and the uncertainty of its present, salvaging a draw against a bottom-placed Fulham side through a late deflection while its former captain declared the performance the worst he had witnessed in a lifetime of watching. Manager Michael Carrick holds the line with measured defiance, but the table does not lie — twelve points from fifth, ten behind City, and a fanbase whose patience is fraying at the edges. Great institutions do not collapse in a s