Robinson can also thank Australia for bringing back into the fashion the age-old tactic of the wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps to pace bowlers.

Alex Carey did it so effectively during the Ashes and England are now copying with Robinson.

It may seem obvious but that tweak is really playing into Robinson’s strengths.

If the wicketkeeper was stood back the modern batsman would be walking down the pitch to Robinson. With Jamie Smith up they can’t because of the risk of being stumped.

It means Robinson can bowl a yard fuller, giving his deliveries more time to swing through the air and means more of Robinson’s deliveries would hit the stumps rather than bouncing over from a shorter length.

Of course, you cannot do any of this without a good wicketkeeper. Praise must also go to Jamie Smith.

After we saw Smith struggle badly through the Ashes, he has clearly improved his glovework. Wicketkeeping coach Sarah Taylor has been working him hard before play with a drill where she whacks tennis balls towards him with a racket.

The ball skids through and, with a batsman stood in front edging, missing and hitting the ball, Smith has to stay low and take them.

The results speaks for themselves.

Now the next question for Robinson is whether he can repeat this success on harder, flatter pitches, or in hot conditions which will test those fitness levels. England will face them in their three-Test series in South Africa this winter.

They have often left Robinson out for Test on more batter-friendly pitches but it is time for them to throw him in. He has earned that right.

England are working behind the scenes to get Robinson into the position where he maintains his pace around 82mph, rather than his current place of starting there before dropping to 77 or 78mph.

If he does that, the extra bounce he will get as a result should negate the loss of movement.

And before then I desperately hope England do not rest Robinson, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson or Josh Tongue for the third Test in Edgbaston.

England’s new quartet has shown real promise. They may not have a frontline spinner but Robinson, who conceded runs at just 1.29 per over across the Lord’s Test, can effectively do the holding job of a slow bowler if needed.

Do not break things up now.

After their poor run England just need to keep on winning matches and, just as importantly, this group needs to get used to bowling together as an attack.

Joe Root must also learn how to use each of them best.

This, with Robinson as the leader, is England’s best attack. Stick with it in Birmingham and beyond.

Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport’s Matthew Henry

Mel describes himself as “buzzing” as he waits and wobbles in an unfeasibly long queue outside Graveleys Fish & Chips.

It is an hour before kick-off at Elland Road and Mel has enjoyed “a couple” of pints which, as everybody knows, is code for several, and he is craving something battered and deep-fried to either soak up the alcohol or gently pickle in it. “We’ve made some decent signings,” he says/sways. “It feels like we’ve got a chance. We’re managing to not f*** things up.”

The last sentence is accompanied by a tone of incredulity, which turns out to be prophetic because after a summer of Marching on Together, as the anthem goes, Leeds United are suddenly marching directly into a brick wall. Our league can be like that, turning off-days into mood-crushers, and this has all the hallmarks of one, from the early loss of Joe Roden to injury to a meekness that feels ingrained beneath the skin.

They fall behind to Brentford and deserve to. They are passive, uncomfortable. By the end, though, the gears have ground and the volume risen and it is pure force and full-throttle and “Leeds, Leeds, Leeds”. Even now, there are few ballsier or more intimidating arenas than here on matchday, when players swarm like the crowd sounds and they become undeniable. There can be beauty in bile and artistry in aggression and, historically, Leeds have specialised in both.

“The storm was always going to come,” Brentford’s Keith Andrews says, a poetic way of putting how Elland Road can feel.

“It’s an amazing place. The club has ebbed and flowed over the past 10, 15 years, as everyone is aware, but it’s always a spicy atmosphere, which I really love. Some of our players will be used to it, some less so. You’ve got to be ready for every punch that gets thrown at you.” A storm of punches are what Leeds are, except they are now boxing clever.

The adrenaline of Elland Road (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Back where it all ended, there is regrowth amid the rubble. Behind the West Stand is a building site, a place of physical transformation in granite and steel and a scene of rejuvenation. Leeds were the last team to win the English title prior to the formation of the Premier League in 1992 and a great northern powerhouse is stirring. They are no longer dream-chasers and club-wreckers, but reconstructed on stable foundations and common sense.

Those white strips of theirs have always been a mirage; Leeds are nobody’s idea of innocents. Yet the modern incarnation carries a tinge of it. In a pre-season poll in The Athletic, their fans declared themselves the most optimistic in the Premier League, a peculiar thing for a club that had been promoted the year before and then finished 15th. Yet since early December, their form has blossomed. It now features five defeats in 27 league matches and a list of sound decisions.

Behind the West Stand is a building site (George Caulkin/The Athletic)

(George Caulkin/The Athletic)

As plenty of clubs demonstrate, not f***ing up can be surprisingly problematic and Leeds made a habit of the opposite. Having entered the Premier League era as ferocious rivals to Manchester United, they bluffed and blundered, spending too much, delivering too little and then toppling down the divisions and splattering into League One. Their promotion from the Championship in 2020 was a fever dream of chaos, but they were relegated again three years later.

The new Leeds is both different and the same. Outside the ground, it is old-school sensory overload: a lad in a replica kit with “0 DAYS SOBER” on the back; scarves wrapped around the forearms and biceps of Billy Bremner’s statue; a brass band playing the Kaiser Chiefs and duelling with a bag-piper; the South Stand Catering truck doling out salt and chilli chicken chunks for £10 a pop; a beery waft from outside The Old Peacock.

Fans head into Elland Road (George Caulkin/The Athletic)

Billy Bremner’s statue (George Caulkin/The Athletic)

Mel is simultaneously bullish and fatalistic. He kept coming when the club was flatlining; he fell in love with Marcelo Bielsa, the maverick Argentinian who took them up six years ago; he believed and then cursed himself for his naivety and told himself he would never believe again. “Part of me knows how this ends, because it always ends the same way,” he says. “But another part of me feels positive. I just don’t really want to say it out loud in case I jinx it.”

The way Leeds begin is distressing evidence of Mel’s profundity. The stadium bellows as the game starts, but it is a climax in reverse. Brentford take the ball and keep it; “we were magnificent,” Andrews tells reporters. At half-time, Daniel Farke notices that his players “are a bit shocked”, as if “they were doubting themselves”, but he makes changes and switches formation, and the team stop doubting. They earn their point in the most basic meaning of the word.

This Leeds optimism was provoked but survived, which is what happens when clubs have a bedrock of solidity. Farke negotiated a challenging November, when his position was vulnerable and he now finds himself the third longest-serving manager in the league. They have bought quality — James Trafford, the England goalkeeper, arriving from Manchester City for a club-record fee of £40million — while key players such as Ethan Ampadu have agreed contract extensions. They are settled.

After staying up, with Elland Road being modernised and remodelled, there is a feeling of forward momentum to Leeds. Farke’s squad is populated by firm characters, and the ownership is aligned. Paraag Marathe, the chairman, did a lap of the pitch before the game, posing for selfies, shaking hands and chatting to fans. If there was an edginess to their first-half performance — no shots on target, three touches in the Brentford box — there was also knowledge; they can and would be better.

The match programme for the visit of Brentford (George Caulkin/The Athletic)

The view entering the stand (George Caulkin/The Athletic)

“Someone outside was saying to me that the place felt calm today, even though it was a difficult first half, that there was big belief,” Farke says. “I’m not sure if Leeds will ever be calm. I don’t want this place to be calm. We are the most passionate club in the whole country, and I don’t want to change that one bit. But you could really feel there was a confidence and trust that we would find a way back into this difficult game, to not crumble or fall apart.”

To clarify, this was absolutely not calm. Leeds roused and rallied and roiled. Their fans railed, singing “We are Leeds” and chanting “W*****s, w*****s, w*****s” at the officials. The storm came, and it was a rager, pushing Brentford back and bringing with it a tang of inevitability, made flesh when Dominic Calvert-Lewin met a driven cross from Lukas Nmecha to equalise. But nor was there fluster or panic. Carnage was controlled.

This idea of Leeds and trust, Leeds and unity, is compelling. “The club had the best times in their whole history when it was united,” Farke says. “It’s what our name says. It’s crucial. Will it be possible to establish ourselves back in the top flight and then hopefully one day also speak about the top half of the table or even about Europe and back to the glory old years of three decades ago? We are united. Everyone is on the same page.”

Like Brentford, Farke’s side remain unbeaten, and the city is humming, crammed with revellers who are here for the Leeds Festival and those who are smitten with their club all over again.

In a text message — surprisingly coherent given the circumstances — Mel says he is heading back to the Old Peacock for another “couple,” to toast Farke and a decent draw and not f***ng up. “I can feel it,” he says. “We’re going to have a good season.” Maybe it is the drink talking, but Leeds mean business.

Considering Marcus Rashford and Manchester United both thought his time at the club was up, his first game back at Old Trafford in 20 months felt a lot more natural than one might expect.

In the beginning, it was slightly surreal to see Rashford, now bearing No 9, sprinting down the left wing in a red shirt, having got used to him wearing the claret and blue of Aston Villa, then the garnet and blue of Barcelona. But as the minutes went on, his return to United made growing sense.

Although there are still 48 hours of the transfer window left, everybody is expecting Rashford to stay — indeed, that outcome was predicted by well-placed sources, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, a fortnight ago — and now we can, with a second full debut as evidence, imagine what this season looks like for him and his team.

It does not seem outlandish to say that if he carries on as he did against Ipswich Town, then head coach Michael Carrick will be happy that Barcelona declined to trigger the buy option in their loan agreement with United.

Rashford did not score or assist in the 5-2 victory, but he gave United a different way to attack than the other forwards in Carrick’s squad. His dribble into the box, past two Ipswich players, in the seventh minute reminded supporters of a player who can get defenders backpedalling and panicking. He nudged the ball back for Matheus Cunha, who blasted over.

In the second half, he collected a long pass, with his back to goal, then swerved past Darnell Furlong, nutmegged Issa Diop to move into the area, but got crowded out by two defenders. These are close-control skills of a level not many can match.

Then there is his understanding with Luke Shaw, which could be an effective weapon this season, disrupting defences. Having spent eight seasons together, they have picked up where they left off, with Shaw confident in his overlapping runs knowing he will get the pass more often than not.

Rashford weighted one perfectly with the score at 1-1, allowing Shaw to cross for a cutback that got intercepted, but led to the ball being recycled and Diogo Dalot crossing deep from the right for Rashford to stretch to reach. His centre, on the volley, found Bryan Mbeumo, who hit the bar. He has created seven chances this season, with only Chelsea’s Morgan Rogers (nine) having created more in the Premier League.

Rashford also did the gritty stuff that he was criticised for avoiding towards the end of his first spell. An early tackle in midfield on Julio Enciso drew cheers from the crowd, while a challenge 10 minutes from the end to muscle Abdul Fatawu off the ball ensured the applause lingered long as he was substituted.

This game showed that bond between fans and player, which was fractured in 2024, can be re-established when that same effort is shown every week.

After the final whistle, speaking to journalists, Harry Maguire provided a player’s perspective, touching on how the turbulence at United, when not winning titles, can take a toll. The reasons around Rashford’s departure have been documented, of course.

But he appears refreshed. His period away, in the present light, looks like a reset.

His new status probably suits him too. From being the star on whom much depended — leading to that £325,000-per-week contract off the back of scoring 30 goals in all competitions in 2022-23 — he has returned to take a more of a supporting role. Bruno Fernandes, Cunha, Mbeumo, and even Benjamin Sesko have a similar kind of expectation on them to deliver.

The pressure to lead is now shared at United (David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)

Obviously, there will be demands on Rashford, but not to win games almost single-handedly, as there were in the past.

If he does stay focused, engaged, energised, it is hard to think how much United would have had to spend to replace a player of his calibre. Certainly, more than the €30million buy option available to Barcelona.

At the time of negotiation, United and Rashford thought it was effectively guaranteed Barcelona would pay that money to keep him. But the La Liga club signing Anthony Gordon at the end of May shattered that expectation.

Other clubs made approaches for Rashford, who considered his options, but Carrick was in touch throughout, and United began to come to the conclusion that the most realistic, prudent outcome was the 28-year-old being reintegrated.

By the time Rashford returned to pre-season, he was not searching for other clubs and was excited to be working with Carrick, his former team-mate and coach.

Rashford back at United after his loan to Barcelona (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)

United had looked at signing Crysencio Summerville, who finished last season impressively for West Ham United. But his tally was still just five goals in 31 Premier League games. The season before that, he got one in 19. In late July, Summerville moved to Al Hilal in a deal worth up to £60m.

One motivation for Rashford is the records he can still hit with United. He is 11 goals off a century in the Premier League, while 12 more for United would put him on 150 in all competitions, level with Ruud van Nistelrooy in 10th place on the club’s all-time list, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (11th).

Rashford went close to closing that gap against Ipswich. He strained in vain to reach Cunha’s cross in the first half, and it was notable that he took United’s first direct free kick of the game, striking over from 30 yards. Fernandes and Mbeumo applauded the effort.

When he met another of Dalot’s deep crosses from the right, with a firm volley at the far post, Old Trafford was ready to explode. Goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen made a good save.

Rashford’s return has been a pragmatic decision by all parties. But it could yet lead to romantic results.

There remains caution around going too far when projecting Rashford’s future impact, but Carrick, who understands how the football industry works, seems genuinely pleased.

“He’s adding to the group for us; it’s pretty obvious,” said United’s head coach. “I’ve known him for a while. He wasn’t here when I came back, and now he is. I think he’s making the most of that for us and for him as well, to have the opportunity to be here. He’s one of our own. He’s living his dream, playing here and trying to be successful and win.

“Whatever’s gone on, I think part of this club, there were players that maybe were going to leave, didn’t leave. It’s always about what you do next and what your intentions are.

“He’s been fantastic since he came back, I have to say, and it was great to see him on the pitch today for us. Marcus feels like a new signing.”