Manchester United would have taken over at the top of the Premiership if they had beaten West Ham by eight clear goals.
After 17 minutes, with the Reds leading 2-0, and totally in control, it looked a distinct possibility.
But that early momentum gave way to overdrive and one further second half goal confirmed the victory which took them second in the table until at least 4.45pm.
While Untied oozed confidence - even over confidence at times - bottom club West Ham looked and played like a team lacking it in abundance.
Almost a year ago to the day, a Jermain Defoe goal had given the Hammers a rare victory at Old Trafford as United slumped into crisis mode.
This time it took the Hammers 77 minutes before they managed a shot on target from a corner - and even then the effort was a header by United defender Wes Brown which was brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.
Hammers goalkeeper David James made two fine early saves from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's 20-yard volley and a back header by John O'Shea, but he was beaten after a quarter of an hour.
Ruud van NIstelrooy found Gary Neville on the right with a superb pass from the centre of the field.
The England defender whipped his cross in from the wing and Solskjaer scored with a near post header from eight yards, with the help of a deflection off Tomas Repka.
A minute later, Repka was booked by referee Rob Stiles when he floored van Nistelrooy 25 yards from goal.
West Ham were made to pay dearly for the indiscretion when Juan Sebastian Veron stepped up to curl his vicious right foot free kick away from the diving James and into the top right corner of the net.
David Beckham replaced Solskjaer at the start of the second half and United made it 3-0 in the 61st minute.
Paul Scholes found Gary Neville on the right and he fired in a low cross, which was turned into his own net by Sebastien Schemmel standing on the line.