Manchester United slipped to a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday to end a run of three consecutive victories, and Ed Woodward was nowhere to be seen.
The executive vice-chairman and managing director Richard Arnold both opted to head to Yokohama to see Eddie Jones and co. lose by the joint-biggest margin in the history of a Rugby World Cup final to South Africa, according to the Daily Mail.
Woodward may have been glad to miss what was a dire performance from the Red Devils on the south coast as they failed to move above tenth in the Premier League table, as pressure once again mounts on the shoulders of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“If you want to get into the top four you need to win games like this,” said the Norwegian.
“It is a step back for us today, but we need to shake it off and go again.
“You are always very down when you lose and considering the form we were in we were hoping to take the three points.
“We could not capitalise on the good start and a moment of magic won the game for them.
“Sometimes you just hold up your hands and say ‘well done’.
“I thought Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial did very well against them, but in games like this one it is so important to get the first goal and they did it.
“We are disappointed but when you come to places like this you have to take control of the game.
“We did not and we could not get the goal. We were missing some quality at times.
“Maybe I should have started some others.”
The former Molde boss also went on to hint that he is not desperate to make new signings, in a worrying January transfer window update for fans.
“To win games you need to score goals and I’m sure Anthony [Martial] and Marcus [Rashford] are going to get their share of goals,” Solskjaer said.
“Anthony’s just gonna improve but we need more creativity.
“But we’ve got loads of players here in the squad who could create more.”