THE INDIE
Only in football. Manchester United may have made a 100 per cent start to the Premiership season, but that is not good enough for some people. "Fergie out" was the cry outside the Carrington training ground on Friday, though an extended run of victories should satisfy even Disgruntled of Old Trafford.
An eighth-minute goal from Ryan Giggs was enough to make it four wins out of four for Sir Alex Ferguson's team, who have shrugged off the lack of new signings to make the flying start to the season their manager demanded. The handful of season-ticket holders who barracked the club two days ago may not be happy, but they are in a very small minority.
To be fair to the critics, this was probably United's least convincing display of the fledgling season, and Tottenham deserved at least a draw. The points went to the home team, however, to leave both Ferguson and Michael Carrick, the man United prised from Spurs in the summer, highly satisfied. With Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes ready to return from suspension for Wednesday's Champions' League tie against Celtic, it is difficult to see how the campaign to date could have gone much better.
Fate had decreed that Carrick would make his first home start for his new club against his erstwhile team-mates, but if that brought extra pressures to bear on the £18 million midfielder, he could play safe in the knowledge he was missed. "I would have loved him to stay," Martin Jol, the Tottenham manager, said, adding: "Nearly every one of our attacks started with him."
Carrick, who sustained an ankle injury in pre-season, lined up alongside John O'Shea in United's central midfield, but he was a bystander rather than an instigator for the opening goal, after eight minutes. Louis Saha had his legs whipped away by Edgar Davids and Cristiano Ronaldo's free-kick, from 35 yards, had such a swerve and dip on it that Paul Robinson could only parry. Giggs followed up, heading in via the bar.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Spurs declined to accept any of several excellent chances to achieve parity, or even a first win against United in 17 years. Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe and Mido were particularly culpable.
The flowing, penetrating football that characterised United's play in August rarely materialised, and the one player who held his nerve was goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
Spurs are accustomed to being second best against United, yet they are to blame for a third defeat in four matches this season, their worst opening spell since 1995.
United, meanwhile, will gratefully take the points that has given them their best start to a league season since 1985, and secure in the knowledge that Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes have now completed their suspensions. They will believe, also, that Michael Carrick can make more effective contributions.
United had seen Everton and then Portsmouth go above them during the afternoon, but such was their form in the first three fixtures that they remained confident enough.
Spurs welcomed back captain Ledley King following injury and a familiar figure in an unfamiliar guise. Mido, shorn of locks and 10kg, has joined the club for a second time and consigned to the bench Defoe, scorer of two goals in this arena a week earlier with England.
Mido operated on the left, leaving Robbie Keane as the sole central striker, and Spurs found an early rhythm without seriously disturbing United. Ronaldo responded to the predictable taunts with an extravagant shuffle and a curling shot, but Robinson stretched to save well.
The goalkeeper was less assured when Ronaldo unleashed an audacious free-kick after eight minutes. The ball wobbled in the air, Robinson parried and Giggs nodded in.
Keane combined smartly with Jermaine Jenas to give Spurs their first glimpse of goal, after 21 minutes. Jenas took a return pass from the Irishman only to scoop wide.
The move at least ignited some urgency and self-belief in Tottenham's game. They forced United on to the back foot and both their central defenders might have equalised. Van der Sar reached up to deny Dawson and then rushed King to complete a splendid double save.
United were even thankful for the defensive diligence of Ronaldo who couldn't resist a trick or two before steering the ball from danger.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
They were usurped earlier in the day, first by Everton and then by Portsmouth, but Manchester United returned to the top of the embryonic table last night, to the delight of another record Premiership attendance, with a fourth successive victory which maintained their 100% start to the season.
United's matchwinner was the rejuvenated Ryan Giggs, who is probably playing as well as he has ever done, and illuminated another Peter Pan performance with his second goal of the season, headed home from eight yards after Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson could only beat out a free kick from Cristiano Ronaldo.
Tottenham have yet to defeat United in the Premiership, but while they never looked like ending that barren sequence here, they played well enough to deserve a draw, and would have had one but for a double save of the highest order from Edwin van der Sar, to deny Michael Dawson and Ledley King. They were also authors of their own misfortune, in that Jermain Defoe and Mido both spurned headed chances. Consequently, with only three points in their first four games, they are left nursing their worst start to a Premiership season since 1995.
The capacity crowd were in celebratory mood even before the kick-off, saluting presentations to Sir Alex Ferguson and Giggs, as manager and player of the month respectively. Martin Jol reacted to Spurs' home defeat by Everton last time out by changing half the team. Notable new faces were Pascal Chimbonda, the transfer- window recruit from Wigan, who had a characteristically adventurous debut at right-back, and Hossam Ghaly, who made a promising start to his career in English football more than six months after signing from Feyenoord for £2m. The Egyptian midfielder had the second half of last season wrecked by injury and is clearly anxious to make up for lost time. Ghaly's compatriot, Mido, was making a second "debut" after rejoining from Roma.
To United's initial bemusement, the powerful centre- forward played not through the middle but out on the left, where he spent more time than he will have liked tracking Gary Neville's overlapping runs. If United were confused by Mido's deployment and their opponents' 4-5-1 formation, it wasn't for long. They were ahead in the ninth minute, when Robinson's inability to hold a 35-yard free kick from Ronaldo enabled Giggs to head in the loose ball from eight yards. It was a scruffy piece of goalkeeping by England's No 1. Ronaldo's strike was a good one and wobbled in the air, but it was no Exocet and Robinson should have made a better fist of dealing with it.
THE OBSERVER
Michael Carrick looks a bit bigger in a Manchester United shirt than he did in a Tottenham Hotspur one, but otherwise his big day against his old club passed without surprises.
Though the midfielder was neat and efficient and seemed to have been granted the freedom of the park by a less than energetic Spurs midfield, the transfer fee of £18m remains a mystery. 'What a waste of money,' the Spurs fans predictably chorused as Carrick departed 10 minutes from time
A similar sense of anti-climax attends United's best start to a Premiership season. You can't argue with four wins out of four, and top of the table is not a bad place to be with Wayne Rooney about to return, yet few home fans were impressed with a lifeless performance against an insipid Spurs side. But for two or three audacious cameos from Cristiano Ronaldo, the Premiership's biggest attendance would have witnessed a completely unmemorable event.
Spurs fans should have known better than to wind up Ronaldo with those already tired chants relating to his gamesmanship in the World Cup. Even as the visiting fans were taunting the winger he took the ball past a totally befuddled Benoit Assou-Ekotto with a selection of stepovers and brought the first save of the game from Paul Robinson with a curling left-foot shot.
Three minutes later Ronaldo had manufactured a ninth-minute lead for United and this time not even the Spurs fans were pretending England's number one goalkeeper looked quite so good.
Edgar Davids appeared to have fouled Louis Saha in a safe area, and Old Trafford got ready to laugh as Ronaldo lined up a shot from 40 yards, yet he had worked out the goalkeeper was uncomfortable squinting into the evening sun. He put enough pace and swerve on the ball to flummox Robinson, who could manage only a double-handed parry into the danger area in front of goal where Ryan Giggs was quick to guide home a header off the underside of the bar.
Presented with the Player of the Month award for August before kick-off, and partnering Saha in attack as Rooney completed his suspension, Giggs needed treatment for a nosebleed when Didier Zokora caught him in the face midway through the first half. Spurs do not look to be in any need of an icepack just yet.