Manchester Utd - 1 Aston Villa - 0: A strange calm is descending over Manchester United. There may be some supporters who will never accept Malcolm Glazer's rule but, with back-to-back wins and a brief view from the top of the Premiership, Alex Ferguson and his players have quickly set about fumigating Old Trafford from the whiff of mutiny that had threatened to destabilise their first season under new ownership.
On Saturday the supporters did not head for home cursing the new era of Americanisation but eulogising the authority which Darren Fletcher has started to display in midfield, nodding approvingly about Park Ji-sung's lively contribution and rejoicing in the fact Ruud van Nistelrooy no longer seems to be suffering from football's equivalent of the yips.
Joel and Bryan Glazer could be seen high-fiving in the directors' box while, outside, the riot police were munching sandwiches and trying not to look too bored in the backs of their armoured vans.
The Glazers are no longer being smuggled into the stadium behind blacked-out windows and angry mobs are not being held back by snapping Alsatians.
Whether there would be such harmony had United got off to a bad start is highly improbable but on the evidence so far Ferguson's team could represent a sturdier challenge to Chelsea than many observers had thought.
This was the type of match they might have contrived to draw last season, playing unimaginative opponents whose ploys of conservatism left the result resting on one simple equation: could Ferguson's attackers break down the protective layers of defence in front of Thomas Sorensen's goal?
Villa's approach could be summed up by one moment in the first half when Paul Scholes lost the ball in midfield and, with United short of numbers in defence, Gavin McCann and Juan Pablo Angel suddenly had the chance to break. Instead the ball was played sideways, United regrouped and the moment was lost.
On another occasion Sorensen charged through a congested penalty area to pluck a cross out of the sky and went to take a quick throw, looking to spring a Schmeichel-esque counter-attack. He was forced to stop when he realised there was not a single team-mate in a forward position. Eventually he kicked the ball upfield and, in the absence of a Villa player, the ball went straight through to Edwin van der Sar, who was probably grateful for a touch of the ball.
Sorensen was finally beaten in the 66th minute when Olof Mellberg's mistake left van Nistelrooy an opportunity that was too inviting to squander. Cristiano Ronaldo had instigated the move and it was his introduction, just before the hour, that precipitated United's most incisive period.
Villa's last defeat of United was precisely 10 years ago, a 3-1 win that saw a 20-year-old David Beckham score his first goal and infamously led to Alan Hansen's observation that "you win nothing with kids".
With Ronaldo marauding through opposition defences and Wayne Rooney playing like a force of nature, nobody could say the same a decade later and, while that continues to be the case, the Glazers may get an easier ride than they had previously feared.
Guardian Service
