Aston Villa 1 Manchester Utd 4: For some players there would be a temptation to hide after a chastening experience with their country but Wayne Rooney could not go missing if he tried.
Torment had been etched across his face after England's defeat in Russia last week but this was an occasion when there was so much pleasure to be taken that he could even laugh after being nutmegged by Ashley Young in injury-time.
By that point United had secured a seventh consecutive league win and Rooney had come close to stealing the match ball as well as the show. His link-up play with Carlos Tevez did much to disprove the theory that the two strikers are not compatible, and his two goals took his tally to six in five matches and continued the pattern this year that has seen him go through barren patches before scoring almost at will.
There might easily have been more. Rooney had also clipped the crossbar with a whipped shot two minutes after seeing his penalty saved by the substitute goalkeeper, Stuart Taylor. It was a weak spot-kick but most of the spectators in the ground were still catching their breath at the interchange between Rooney and Tevez that culminated in Scott Carson bringing down the Argentinian and receiving the first red card of his career.
The signs are ominous for the rest of the Premier League. United managed eight goals in their first eight league matches but, after the 4-0 thrashing of Wigan and this mauling at Villa Park, Alex Ferguson's side have doubled their tally in 180 minutes. United's manager had not expected such an emphatic scoreline here but benign home defending and Nigel Reo-Coker's reckless dismissal handed three points to the visitors.
Zat Knight was equally culpable, with the former Fulham defender involved in the first three United goals. He ought to have intercepted the first when Nani slid a low ball across the face, which Rooney tapped in.
Knight was caught ball-watching on the second as he allowed Rooney to peel off his shoulder and dispatch Tevez's pass, then he was outjumped by Gerard Pique and Rio Ferdinand forced the ball home despite Craig Gardner's efforts to keep it out.
"Anyone can have a mad 10 or 15 minutes," said Martin O'Neill, Villa's manager. "During the course of a season you try and iron it out, you try and cut out the straightforward, simple errors, but those were so simple it was untrue. The first goal has come across the six-yard box and we have three players in a line to clear the ball before the ball even gets to Rooney. No one moved. And within nine minutes we're 3-1 (down)."
Given the pace and energy that brought a breakthrough through Gabriel Agbonlahor, O'Neill was justified in thinking at half-time that Villa were capable of getting back into it. Those hopes evaporated on the hour, though, when Reo-Coker collected a second booking for a foul on Anderson. O'Neill was unhappy with Rob Styles but the referee had little option.
The remainder of the match was a procession, with Ryan Giggs adding a fourth after he drifted across the Villa area before hammering a shot which deflected off Olof Mellberg and Martin Laursen.
Ferguson could then afford the luxury of withdrawing Tevez, Giggs and Paul Scholes before giving Cristiano Ronaldo the chance to stretch his legs in preparation for tomorrow night's Champions League match in Ukraine against Dynamo Kiev.
"The important thing is that the expression in our play gives me confidence," said the United manager, who hopes Nemanja Vidic will travel to Ukraine after missing this fixture.
He pointed out that Kiev "is a difficult place to go", but Ferdinand revealed that Ferguson had said the same about Villa Park.
A record that reads no defeats in 12 and eight successive victories at Villa's home suggests otherwise.
- Guardian Service
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