They came to praise their team, not to bury the hatchet with their prodigal son, but by the time Cristiano Ronaldo stripped from his tracksuit early in the second half and asked someone to chuck him a No 7 shirt to save his non-existent modesty and misfiring team, all but the most stony-hearted Manchester United supporter was ready to embrace him again.

And so, with a characteristic strut, followed by a bodyswerve, a stepover, a couple of tantalising crosses and a header that flashed narrowly wide, Ronaldo resumed his career at the club he thought he had left behind. It was not what he had in mind in June when he spoke of the “dream” that would take him to Real Madrid, but, as the crowd rose to acclaim him, he might have reflected that Old Trafford is not a bad place to ply his trade while he waits for that dream to be realised.

“That was important for Cristiano,” Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, said of the warmth with which Ronaldo was welcomed back during his team’s goalless draw with Villarreal. “He has had a turbulent summer and a lot has been said about it, but when I had my meeting with him in Portugal, that was it over. He has dedicated himself to getting fit and I think he realises what a great club he is at and how loyal the fans are. He’ll take great encouragement from that.”

Indeed he will; this, after all, is a young man who craves adulation and appreciation. But Ronaldo will be less encouraged by the way that his team have started the season without him while he recovered from ankle surgery. They laboured for the first hour last night, rarely threatening to break down Villarreal, and Ferguson will struggle to resist the temptation to start with Ronaldo against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, knowing that defeat would leave them nine points adrift of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team in the Barclays Premier League, albeit having played one game fewer.

“We’re a bit short in terms of real sharpness and the clinical finishing you would expect of us,” Ferguson said. “But we expressed ourselves well tonight. We had a lot of good chances and I can’t be disappointed with that. We will improve on tonight, no question of that. Chelsea is always a big game for us, but we won’t be giving goals away like we did last Saturday [against Liverpool at Anfield], you can be sure of that.”

Opponents would be forgiven for dreading the return of Ronaldo, but Frank Lampard, the Chelsea midfield player, suggested otherwise yesterday. “I don’t know what the situation is with him and I’m not too concerned,” Lampard said. “He’s the best player in the world, but we’re good enough to deal with United at their strongest. We shouldn’t want them weak. If they are strong we still want to beat them.”