I’ve always been interested in the Icarus Paradox; the idea that failure can result from focussing too much on what you’re good at. I knew someone who worked for a garden hose company; their marketing department thought they were selling gardening equipment, their CEO thought customers valued their quality galvanised rubber compounds, the kinky bugger. The business went into decline when it ploughed its money into perfecting its rubber, something they were very good at, but nobody cared about.

Like most things, the solution to this could be Artificial Intelligence, I recently read an article investigating the idea that rather than hobbling society by removing thousands of people from the workforce, perhaps AI could be deployed to replace the handful of people at the top of businesses whose ego, bias and fragility, have a disproportionate impact on a company’s performance.

Ironnically, the Icarus Paradox will never be solved due to the Icarus Paradox; research shows a large number of business leaders demonstrate psychopathic tendencies. Their lack of empathy manifests in overblown self-confidence, rendering them incapable of objectively reviewing their own weaknesses.

Or maybe not, with the departure of Tim Williams, Grant Ferguson and, it’s now rumoured, Adam Benson, you might wonder who is currently running Oxford United. Perhaps the mysterious Dusan Bogdanovic is just an Artificial Intelligence chatbot dishing out instructions.

There was a paradoxical atmosphere before last night’s game against Wigan. On one hand, we had the stirring pre-match video montage, dancing floodlights and flashing advertising board razzmatazz of last year’s Championship games. This was despite a tangible lack of home fans and a smattering of hardcore Wigan fans in the away end. The dank, cold October evening meant the game felt like a duty, only the novelty of it being our first home tie in a month drew any attraction. What was left was something opaque, beneath the shiny surface there was an earthy familiarity.

The difference was the dynamic. There was a time when Wigan represented one of the great threats of the division. They’d shuttle menacingly between the Championship and League One, emitting Premier League and FA Cup memories.

Returning to face them after our own mini-odyssey, you could see the effect of their cataclysmic fall from grace through gross financial mismanagement. They’re a shell of what they were, a hollowed-out husk, and small, so very small, like they’ve become emaciated by rationing.

By comparison, we’ve maintained fragments of a Championship hue, which manifests in power, pace and size. The new stadium, transfer embargo and leadership uncertainty may leave us in limbo, and Wigan is a good example of what happens when things are neglected for too long, but for now, we look like a club from a different planet.

We dominated from the opening minutes, camping in their half, out muscling and out pacing an opponent who look withered by comparison. If we were guilty of anything, it was that we didn’t seem able to make the pressure count. This is not the Ramsey way, he prefers to invest early and reap the rewards later. In a busy schedule, why waste time and energy winning 5-0 when there are no more points on offer than winning by the odd goal?

The lack of urgency subdued a crowd already damp from the rain and tired from the day’s toil. It was satisfyingly controlled without being thrilling, as assured as it needed to be, but no more. There was a palpable sense of acceptance, there’s plenty of equity in the manager and his team.

The reward was ultimately rather perfunctory, a routine ball into the box, a scrap to bring it under control and Michal Helik blasting home at the second attempt. Trust the process, execute behaviours, focus on the inputs and let the outputs take care of themselves.

Punctuality is one of Ramsey’s great qualities; on the hour, as is entirely predictable, he made his move, introducing his substitutes to press home the advantage. I wonder whether he’s actually benefitting from the constraints he’s had to work with, he hasn’t had to make any big decisions because he doesn’t have any big options.

Only, without Gatlin O’Donkor, Mark Harris had to carry the line longer than usual. The substitutions didn’t deliver the same killer blow that’s worked previously. Minutes later, Helik and Andrews fumbled possession allowing Christian Saydee to drive forward with abandon, lash at the ball and beat Cumming at his left post.

There was barely a ripple of malcontent, no more than a niggling frustration that Jamie Cumming’s let another one through his fingers and a failure to put the game out of reach. Any grumbles were quickly extinguished when Fraser Murray raked his studs down the back of Jack Currie’s leg. The referee had already set a low bar of what was bookable long before she was presented with the option to brandish a red.

The advantage seemed to have the same impact as substitutions had previously; Kai Andrews glided around the pitch like Patrick Viera, recycling the ball into increasingly threatening areas. What he set up, he finished, with 14 minutes to go, he picked up a neat ball from Siriki Dembele to slide the ball into the net.

It was only a goal, but it seemed inconceivable that Wigan would find a way back. The action was handed over to Aidomo Emakhu; attacking fluidly down the left with the class of the Premier League and finishing of a Premier Inn. The YouTube highlights showed just one of his many chances, it should have inserted a caption summarising the remaining minutes as: ‘like this, but six times’.

Six minutes of injury time raised barely a ripple of concern, Wigan were done long before the end. Ramsey may yet fly too close to the sun with his system when suspensions, injuries and even new players influence the options he has, but these are the results that’ll give him a platform to build from.