When his stricken striker limped off United had already used their three substitutes and Van Persie did leave the ground on crutches, but United's third substitution was not made until the 80th minute so they did not play with a "passenger" for long.
Instead the focus of everyone's attention was left to congratulate himself on his decision-making – "It was about the substitutes," Van Gaal volunteered – on an evening when the only real downside for United was the injury bulletin about Luke Shaw, Jonny Evans and Antonio Valencia.
After treatment on the field, Trautmann was not accompanied off it: substitutes were not allowed, so City would have had to continue with 10 men.
When the substitutes were made, they were identified as, respectively: "Number 15, number 14, numbers 13 and 16, and finally, number 17".
Another similar attempt in the second period was as good as it got, though Substitutes Barkley (for Wilshere, 66); Townsend (for Sterling, 66); Jagielka (for Cahill, 74); Vardy (for Rooney, 75); Walcott (for Lallana, 82) Referee Arnold Hunter NI.
There aren't good substitutes for it," he said.
Substitutes: Samir Handanovic (Inter), Mattia De Sciglio (Milan), Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Milan), Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) Vincenzo Montella did not begin the season fretting about Champions League qualification.
In those days before substitutes, United were forced to move Jackie Blanchflower from centre-half into goal and Wood was a passenger on the wing for the rest of the match.
Gareth Bale is many things, not least the world's most expensive footballer, but even the Wales supporters who afforded him such a rapturous ovation when he came off the substitutes' bench with just over half an hour remaining must have known that it was beyond the Real Madrid forward to turn this match around.
Healthcare assistants (HCA), or unregistered nurses, are obviously not direct substitutes for nurses, but can have an important role to play.
The evening had not started promisingly for Arsenal, when Wenger could only name six substitutes.
