Newcastle 0 Manchester Utd 2: Manchester United's challenge for the title will be durable because they have hardened their hearts. The visitors reeled off another clean sheet to continue a pristine start to the programme, but the real fillip comes from the fact that they are rediscovering the way to win.
When they yielded the championship to Chelsea the side was most demoralised by afternoons, such as a goalless draw at Crystal Palace, when they thwarted themselves.
Admittedly Newcastle United did nurse the visitors towards this healthy result. Their £8m centre-half Jean-Alain Boumsong suffered from dazed moments that made each goal possible, but Alex Ferguson's team had a cutting edge that was always likely to snip a fraying safety rope. The St James' Park team have fallen hard in this campaign, unable to win or score in any of their Premiership fixtures.
A £16m bid for Michael Owen smacks more of desperation than wealth and the compass of the Real Madrid striker's career does not appear to be swinging towards the north-east. The absence of a finisher, though, is a handicap that reduces an isolated Alan Shearer to slugging it out unproductively with markers.
The victors here, by painful contrast, had abundant means in attack. They would not have required any faux pas from Boumsong had the referee not been wincingly harsh in his interpretations. Just after Wayne Rooney's opener, Ruud van Nistelrooy was clear when Stephen Carr pulled him back but Howard Webb did not detect the offence, which would have demanded a red card.
It was more perverse still of the official to book the centre-forward five minutes later. Rooney sent him through and it would have been more reasonable to award a penalty for Shay Given's challenge than punish Van Nistelrooy for a dive. Peeved as he was, Ferguson will still be glad to see how incidents continue to cluster around the Holland centre-forward.
His rediscovered menace galvanises team-mates. Rooney, the best player on the field, vibrates with energy, but his run down the right in stoppage-time was powered by the confidence that there was a poacher in the middle. Boumsong could not control or even clump clear the low cross and Van Nistelrooy capitalised greedily. The France international had been lethargic and complacent at Rooney's goal. Edwin van der Sar kicked downfield and Boumsong might have been expecting Steven Taylor to head clear, but the defender was prevented from doing so by the harassment of Van Nistelrooy.
Boumsong then let the ball bounce behind him. He had not been conscious of the pace and hunger of Rooney, who raced in to thump a shot past Given.
Defensive weaknesses cripple Newcastle's ambitions, but the public attention is mostly fixed on the attack. This club have never before opened a league season by failing to score in four matches. Van der Sar had little opportunity to show off the quality that has, at last, been restored to the goalkeeper's post at United. There was virtually no threat. Though he did beat an attempt by Shearer into the path of Albert Luque after 12 minutes, the newcomer was offside as he pushed the ball into the net.
The £9.5m signing from Deportivo La Coruna was naturally bemused by the speed with which his debut arrived and the velocity of a Premiership contest. He could be excused for that but few others could be. These fans deserve to see far more resilience than Newcastle showed and so long as the team's efforts are bland Souness should fear the sack. Like most beleaguered managers, he is finding that luck obstinately refuses to help him.
This, on paper, was a more enterprising Newcastle line-up because Emre Belozoglu and Kieron Dyer were reinstated. Each passed a fitness test, but they could not stand up to the rigorous examination of a genuine fixture and had to be replaced with recurrences of muscle problems.
Lee Bowyer, too, was hurt. Scott Parker was therefore the sole survivor from the midfield that started. He seemed to revel in the reponsibility placed upon him, surely impressing a watching Sven-Goran Eriksson with his interceptions and range of passes. By himself, though, he could not bring Manchester United to a standstill.
Cristiano Ronaldo ought to have put them ahead before the interval after Van Nistelrooy sent him through, but Given blocked the drive with his legs. In the 57th minute, the Holland striker himself failed miserably, heading wide from a John O'Shea cross.
"It was the kind of performance I've experienced when we've been going for something," said Ferguson, recalling the years of triumph. "There was a solid platform."
An imperfect win that called for perseverance pleased him more than a romp could ever have done.
Guardian Service
