'Manchester United used to have the biggest and most blasé crowds in the country. Now they are just the biggest. A record Premiership attendance shoehorned into Old Trafford to see Wayne Rooney but he fell short of his most exhilarating peaks and there was no disguising the Mancunian melancholy engulfing the stadium at the end.
The disappointment was inevitable given that Arsenal's form makes the nine-point gap feel like a chasm. Only the most pessimistic United supporter could have envisaged they would be so far behind while the leaves were still dropping from the trees and the sense of despair was compounded here by the fact that their opponents arrived with half their usual team missing.
To put Middlesbrough's performance into perspective, Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Franck Queudrue, Ray Parlour, Michael Reiziger and Joseph-Désiré Job were all absent. Hence their right flank comprised a full-back, Tony McMahon, and a winger, James Morrison, who were making their first Premiership starts, while on the bench was another member of their FA Youth Cup-winning team, Andrew Taylor, and a fourth teenager, Danny Graham, who spent last season on loan at Darlington.
In the circumstances their manager Steve McClaren could reflect upon a hugely satisfying day's work.'