Tottenham 0 Manchester Utd 4:On this form Manchester United could turn all the missions behind enemy lines into one long lap of honour.
Protestations about a penalty awarded and others denied are quashed by the authority of the victors. While the theory that Alex Ferguson's side can be robbed of their six-point lead during menacing away fixtures has not been abandoned, no one was expressing it with any great volume at White Hart Lane.
It is unlikely that the victors will be distressed by a back injury to Wayne Rooney that saw him taken off after 66 minutes. The concern is the sole property of England, with Ferguson stating that a decision will be taken this morning on whether the forward can take part in Wednesday's friendly with Spain.
Who would have thought that the loss of the visitors' goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar for the closing minutes, after he had his nose broken by a collision with Robbie Keane, would lead to merriment rather than panic for the United fans? Having made his three substitutions by then, Ferguson put one of them, John O'Shea, between the posts.
"Ireland's number one," sang the supporters.
The makeshift goalkeeper was soon outside his area to make a tackle on Keane as the striker sought to capitalise on a bad passback from Rio Ferdinand.
"You'll never beat O'Shea," came the chant. All of that is mere silliness, but it was significant because it showed how comprehensively United's panache had ended the contest.
Tottenham will still howl over the opening goal, seeing it as the fork in the road that led to a spree for United. A minute from the interval, Cristiano Ronaldo danced into the area and Steed Malbranque foolishly aimed a speculative flick before withdrawing his left boot. It was difficult to discern if there had been contact, but the winger went down, getting up to lash home a low penalty.
Nonetheless, Martin Jol's team did not have undisputed rights to the role of aggrieved party. United had watched Henrik Larsson being brought down by Anthony Gardner inside the box with half an hour gone, but referee Mark Clattenburg spotted no offence.
There was a kind of parity a little later, however, when the official failed to observe Gary Neville grabbing Pascal Chimbonda to ensure he did not get his head to a cross.
There was a degree of scrappiness for a while at White Hart Lane, but United achieved unanswerable fluidity in the second half. The fixture turned into a glowing advert for age as Larsson, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs tormented Tottenham with the intelligence and variety of their repertoire.
Dimitar Berbatov occasionally looked as if he could put the visitors off-balance. Following a Tom Huddlestone pass in the 33rd minute, his angled attempt almost got the better of Van der Sar. The Bulgarian had further efforts to beat the goalkeeper, but they were irrelevancies as United's position became unassailable.
The game was finely balanced at the interval, but Tottenham were to be swiftly and irrecoverably toppled. United simply would not allow them to come through a barrage unscathed at the opening of the second half.
Paul Robinson had twice to tip the ball over his own bar, but was helpless at yet another corner in the 48th minute - Nemanja Vidic getting in front of Michael Dawson to head home a Michael Carrick delivery. It is becoming ever more glaring that the Serbia centre half is a crucial factor in the improvement of United.
Most things went in their favour at White Hart Lane. Having inexplicably avoided a booking for his clumsy tackling, Scholes' true talent emerged for the third goal. Ronaldo beat Lee Young-pyo and Robinson did no more than palm the cut-back on for the United midfielder to bundle the ball into the net.
For the concluding goal in the 77th minute the substitute Louis Saha released Giggs and the Welshman finished with aplomb.
This team does still have to go to Anfield and Stamford Bridge, but Liverpool and Chelsea must also worry about receiving visitors of this calibre.
Guardian Service
