So where were we? Before the roof caved in at Manchester City. Before the fury of the football world rained down on the Etihad. Before the Premier League landscape as we know it began to shift.

For some of their rivals, a marathon international break that promised nothing more than three weeks of misery became altogether less painful as the fascination over City's guilty verdict diverted attention away from their own troubles.

Nowhere more so than at Manchester United and Tottenham who meet at Old Trafford on Saturday evening as the Premier League swings back into action and the City storm abates for 24 hours before their trip to Anfield.

At United, there has been pleasant surprise over the unexpected respite City's fall from grace has given to their neighbours after a difficult start to the season on and off the pitch.

Make no mistake, though, the heat is back on Michael Carrick and his adversary Roberto De Zerbi. If there is a loser on Saturday, the sanctuary of these last three weeks will count for very little.

De Zerbi is barely six months into a five-year contract, having done enough over the final seven games of last season to save Spurs from relegation.

Although the two-year deal handed to Carrick as he led United to a third-place finish in May showed less faith from his club, he has said that it's 'ridiculous' to speculate over his future already.

Maybe so, but both teams need to improve urgently – and for one of them it might be about to get a whole lot worse before it can get any better.

Not for the first time in recent years, United and Tottenham are setting an embarrassingly low bar for the Big Six clubs.

Spurs arrive at Old Trafford sitting rock bottom of the table, having yet to win in the Premier League this season.

De Zerbi's side had failed to score in their first five games too until the 86th minute of their last outing against Aston Villa when late goals from Conor Gallagher and Jan Paul van Hecke couldn't avert a 3-2 home defeat.

United are likely to have dropped lower than their current 12th position by kick-off, with five other Premier League games taking place earlier on Saturday.

Carrick's side have won just one of their five league matches this term, at home to newly promoted Ipswich Town back in August. This despite a relatively gentle start to a season that was always going to get tougher once the Champions League fixtures kicked in.

Given that the opener at home to Sabah of Azerbaijan was tantamount to a bye, the serious stuff is about to begin with a trip to Atletico Madrid next week followed by a more winnable game at Como eight days later.

For the second game in a row, United face bottom-of-the-table opposition, having scraped a draw at Fulham with a late equaliser before the international break.

'It's not been ideal, to be totally honest. It's a long break. Probably too long from my perspective,' said Carrick at Carrington on Friday.

'But then of course we've made the most of it. Regardless of results, when you've had a period like this, international breaks in general are normally a time where you can have a bit of a review and plan what's next.

'We're calm in some ways. We understand where we want to get to and how we want to get there. But that doesn't mean we're calm in terms of how we play. We need to have a little bit of fire moving forward. We need to keep pushing for more.'

Carrick could argue that he didn't have the same backing from his club in the transfer market this summer as De Zerbi. The £380million spent by Spurs was more than double what United paid for new signings.

Indeed, two of the midfield targets whose valuations were too rich for United's blood, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, went to Spurs instead.

The folly of failing to strengthen at left-back and centre-forward was exposed within weeks of the new season starting as Luke Shaw and Benjamin Sesko went down injured.

Shaw is fit again now but two of the players who have replaced him so far, Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui, were injured on international duty for Denmark and Morocco and have been ruled out of Saturday's game.

There are growing concerns over Sesko's persistent shin injury after he withdrew from the Slovenia squad. 'Ben's a little bit further away,' said Carrick. 'We're still working through it to see how long the issue will be.'

He added that Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo, who both pulled out of England duty, have 'done a little bit of training' along with Amad Diallo who hasn't played this season. Matthijs De Ligt has been out for almost a year.

At least, Carlos Baleba could make his debut against Spurs after playing in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Lausanne last Friday.

The Cameroon midfielder was United's most expensive summer signing at £70million, and the club's financial limitations were laid bare in their latest yearly results. They show that United's debt and the cost of servicing it are now both above the £1billion mark despite record revenues of £677.6million.

There were protests against the club's owners, the Glazer family and Ineos billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, before the last league game at Old Trafford which ended in defeat to City in the Manchester derby.

Ongoing discontent over a clampdown on ticket touting has deepened during the break after it emerged that United are going to appoint a supporter escalations executive, fuelling concerns that the club's war on its own fans has only just begun.

Carrick desperately wants a win to keep a lid on things. The only consolation is that De Zerbi's need may be even greater.