In a parallel universe, Liverpool would not currently be trying to end nearly 30 years of hurt and misery in the Premier League title race.
That particular drought would have ended a decade ago, when a team led by Rafael Benitez hunted down their bitter rivals Manchester United to proudly restore the Reds of Merseyside to their perch.
All this could quite feasibly have happened - were it not for the intervention of a 17-year-old kid from Italy making one of the most cinematic debuts in football history.
Believe it or not, this Friday marks 10 years since Federico 'Kiko' Macheda spun sharply inside an Old Trafford penalty area and curled home in front of the Stratford End the goal that kept United a nose in front of Liverpool until the end of the season.
It was a delirious moment for the teenager, but really Macheda was merely the latest in the lineage of United players scoring decisive stoppage-time winners. Bruce '93. Cantona '96. Solskjaer '99. Macheda '09.
From that launchpad, Macheda's United career briefly soared like a rocket, only to soon run out of fuel and crash down into numerous loan spells and injury setbacks.
The striker would eventually leave Old Trafford in 2014 and now plays for Panathinaikos in Greece, where he is scoring regularly again. But before all that, back to the beginning.
Early April 2009, and while United were the reigning champions of England, Europe and the World, they were in a spot of bother.
Sir Alex Ferguson's side had uncharacteristically blown a seven-point advantage at the top of the table following a catastrophic 4-1 home defeat by challengers Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat at Fulham.
With Benitez's side winning 1-0 at Craven Cottage 24 hours earlier - thanks to a 92nd-minute goal no less - United entered their Sunday afternoon match with Aston Villa in second place.
Ferguson's squad was severely depleted. Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic were all suspended, while Dimitar Berbatov, Rio Ferdinand and several others were out injured.
Gary Neville had to slot in at centre-half in a makeshift back line. Carlos Tevez started up front alongside Ryan Giggs but the Argentine was just back from international duty and unlikely to last the full 90.
Six days earlier, Ferguson, conscious of his threadbare forward line, had told Macheda ahead of a reserve outing at Newcastle: 'If you do well tonight then there's a big chance you're going to be on the bench on Sunday.'
Macheda duly scored a hat-trick and Ferguson was true to his word.
Liverpool had thrashed Villa 5-0 a week earlier but United found it much tougher going. Cristiano Ronaldo gave them an early lead but goals by John Carew and Gabby Agbonlahor, both enjoying their mismatch with Neville, meant Villa led with 10 to play.
Ferguson had thrown Macheda into the fray for Nani after 61 minutes and, though the youngster had taken to the enormous stage with chest-out confidence, those inside a tense Old Trafford could see the title slipping through United's fingers.
Ronaldo equalised with 10 minutes to play but it still would have been advantage Liverpool with seven games to play.
Mere seconds remained when Giggs slipped a pass into Macheda just inside the box. He spun with a Cruyff turn and bent his shot, on the stretch and while falling backwards, beyond the reach of Brad Friedel.
In the Sky Sports commentary box, Martin Tyler's voice turned into a squeak as he mouths the last couple of syllables of 'MACHEDA!!!'.
The youngster showed remarkable poise amid the delirium to find his father, Pasquale, in the stands and ran to embrace him. In the press box, the scramble to find out who on earth Federico Macheda is began.
Born and raised in 'a crazy area of Rome', Macheda's upbringing had been tough. Pasquale worked night shifts as a security guard so he could take his talented son to football training in the day; his mother Loredana was a maid in a hotel.
'Money was tight for my family. We didn't have holidays. Never,' Macheda said in an interview with ESPN in 2017. 'Once every few years, we'd do to the sea for a day.
'We had social housing and there were lots of crazy people around. I made a lot of mistakes as a kid, which I look back on and think "you can't do that". But I did do that; petty stuff that got me in trouble.'
He failed miserably at school, having to repeat the same year four times as a teenager. Luckily, his football talent offered an escape route to better fortunes.
A Lazio fan who revered Alen Boksic, Matias Almeyda and Juan Sebastian Veron, Macheda was playing for their academy when a United scout started watching him aged 16.
When United played Roma in the Champions League quarter-finals in 2007, Ferguson invited Macheda and his family back to the team hotel. The interest was serious.
'He gave me a shirt with my name and the No 9 on the back. They also gave me one from Cristiano Ronaldo,' Macheda recalled. 'And this was Ferguson doing this. At Lazio, I'd never even spoken to the first-team manager.'
Macheda was soon on the move to Manchester, but it was far from smooth. A misunderstanding over money left the player on just £600 per month. He didn't speak any English, hated the food and the weather was depressing.
'I wanted to leave after one day,' he later admitted.
Luckily, the following day, Macheda reported for training and had breakfast with Ronaldo and Giggs. Soon he was scoring regularly for the youth team and then the reserves, who were coached by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
With hindsight, we know that Macheda's United career peaked with that one moment. What is often forgotten is that he also scored United's winner at Sunderland the following weekend.
He played a bit-part role for the remainder of the season, starting the FA Cup semi-final with Everton at Wembley, and actually signed a four-year contract in December 2009.
Like the flicking of a switch, Macheda's life had transformed. He recalled being swamped by 100 people while shopping in the Trafford Centre, while a photo emerged of the teenager looking awkward while surrounded by glamorous women in a nightclub.
Ferguson did his best to keep the youngster grounded, but the manager knew the deck was very much stacked against Macheda.
United, after all, were European champions and would reach another final in 2009. They had Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez and Danny Welbeck. He was always destined for a bit-part role.
Midway through the 2010-11 season, with Macheda still only 19, it was suggested he take some time out on loan. Unfortunately it was here the teenager's bravado proved his downfall.
'I had a few runs of games but I needed to be playing every week,' he said in the ESPN interview. 'Fergie wanted me to go out on loan; I could see that was sensible.
'Many Premier League clubs came in for me including Everton and Sunderland. But I wanted to play in Italy, in Serie A.
'Fergie did not agree and said I should play in England, where he could keep an eye on me. He said he didn't have the same power in Italy.
'I insisted on Italy and that was the worst mistake of my life.'
In ignoring Ferguson, Macheda quickly found himself sucked into a vicious cycle of loan spells, often curtailed by untimely injuries and punctuated by poor spells of form.
He scored just once for Sampdoria and didn't score at all for Queens Park Rangers or Stuttgart.
Before Macheda knew it, it was September 2013, Ferguson had been replaced by David Moyes and he rocked up at Doncaster Rovers in the Championship.
'The town of Doncaster was different to anywhere I'd lived and not the best,' Macheda reflected. 'My girlfriend was my saviour; she came everywhere with me.'
He started well, scoring twice against Nottingham Forest on debut and then again at Sheffield Wednesday. He then pulled his hamstring and the vicious cycle took another turn.
'I started getting back problems in pre-season,' he told Sportsmail two years ago. 'I'd be out for six weeks, come back, struggle again. It got to the stage where I couldn't move or even feel my legs, particularly the right one.
'Eventually, I had an operation. I had a disc pushing on my sciatic nerve and they cut it out. Looking back I wish I'd had the op a lot earlier. It basically took two years out of my career.'
Macheda regained momentum with 10 goals in 10 starts on loan at Birmingham City in his final contracted season at Old Trafford and then joined Cardiff City in 2014. It was a soft landing because Solskjaer was in charge.
He was still only 23 but continued to be plagued by injuries. Solskjaer was sacked just a few weeks after his arrival and successor Russell Slade was less keen on him. In and out of the side, the drift continued.
It was in 2016 that Macheda decided to take a 'Year Zero' approach. Just 25, he felt like he was on the scrapheap. That euphoric moment at Old Trafford seemed a distant dream.
'I was very worried. I couldn't find anyone who wanted to take me and I'm a good player,' he said.
Returning home to Italy and dropping down a level to play for Serie B club Novara proved the kick-start he needed. A small city between Milan and Turin, in the shadow of the snow-capped Alps, it was the ideal under-the-radar setting to start afresh.
'I don't think I failed in England. I was 15, nearly 16, when I came to Manchester with a dream to play in the Premier League, and I did it,' he told Sportsmail in 2017.
'The expectations for a 17-year-old were always unrealistic - not from inside the club but outside.'
Away from the spotlight, with the added responsibility of looking after baby son Lorenzo, Macheda started scoring again.
When his contract expired last summer, he signed a three-year contract with Panathinaikos in Greece and has scored eight goals in 23 matches so far.
A career that started with such a stratospheric high 10 years ago was only likely to go downhill. But at least Federico Macheda will always be remembered for THAT moment. Not least on Merseyside.