United's view from top just gets better

SOCCER / Bolton Wanderers 1 Manchester United 2: If, as Alex Ferguson keeps saying, the "true Manchester United" has yet to be unleashed, then Arsenal, Chelsea and everybody else might have to get used to playing catch-up.

Ferguson's men enjoy the view from the top of the Premiership and they overcame a willing but limited Bolton team last night with plenty in reserve.

Perhaps Bolton blundered in tormenting their opponents with pictures of their much-acclaimed recent triumphs over United on the stadium's large screen. Or maybe United were just aggrieved to have given their Lancashire neighbours such cause for optimism. Either way, the champions calmly resisted everything their hosts could put together until Youri Djorkaeff's header two minutes from time.

Ferguson is entitled to be enamoured, because Bolton are no longer a team to under-estimate. The United manager had cited this fixture in clarifying the omission of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane from his starting line-up in the FA Cup at Aston Villa on Sunday, and even the most worldly of Sam Allardyce's players must have taken a sharp intake of breath when they saw the full artillery wheeled out.

Apart from Darren Fletcher filling the right-wing berth usually occupied by Cristiano Ronaldo, or occasionally Kleberson, this was as intimidating a side as Ferguson could muster and he was duly rewarded. Van Nistelrooy moved closer to becoming the 17th player to score 100 goals for the club, while Keane was at his marauding best despite hurting his left knee early on.

Fletcher, too, responded with his most impressive performance since being introduced to the team against Basle last season, a display that Gary Neville described as the best debut he had ever seen. There is an unselfish streak to him that his team-mates will appreciate, one that was particularly evident in the build-up to Paul Scholes opening the scoring. Fletcher had the opportunity to shoot through a congested penalty area, but opted instead to divert the ball to the left where Ryan Giggs was loitering unmarked. Giggs drove the ball across the face of goal and Jussi Jaaskelainen was unfortunate that his smart save to deny Van Nistelrooy succeeded only in pushing the ball into Scholes's path. From two yards out, the rest was a formality.

The irony was that the breakthrough came just as Bolton were working up a head of steam. The setback of Ricardo Gardner being taken off on a stretcher, having hurt himself in a seemingly innocuous challenge with Fletcher, did not appear to upset their rhythm and twice in quick succession United were indebted to their goalkeeper for judging the swerve on long-range shots from Per Frandsen and Jay Jay Okocha.

Perhaps Bolton's downfall thereafter was to search the equaliser with too much relish. Large spaces were appearing in their defence for United to exploit and, as their second goal demonstrated, there is no greater exponent of the counter-attack than Ferguson's team.

This time Scholes instigated the break with a beautifully weighted ball for Giggs to hurtle clear. Jaaskelainen will reflect he should have done much better, charging off his goal-line but failing to cut out the ball properly. Instead it spun into the air and Giggs lobbed a clever shot towards an exposed net that looked like it was going in anyway until Van Nistelrooy, as greedy as ever, applied the finishing touch.

United simply do not lose two-goal leads and, though Allardyce's side played with typical gusto and endeavour throughout the second half, there was never the sense that they could salvage the situation.

Not even the introduction of Javi Moreno, Bolton's new loan signing from Atletico Madrid, could trouble United, whose 49 points from 20 games is better than any previous season under Ferguson.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Hunt, N'Gotty, Charlton, Gardner (Thome 18), Campo (Ba 82), Frandsen, Djorkaeff, Okocha, Nolan (Javi Moreno 64), Davies. Subs not used: Poole, Giannakopoulos. Booked: Hunt, Frandsen. Goals: Djorkaeff 89.

MAN UTD: Howard, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea, Fletcher, Keane (Butt 82), Phil Neville, Giggs (Fortune 84), Scholes, van Nistelrooy. Subs not used: Carroll, Kleberson, Forlan. Goals: Scholes 24, van Nistelrooy 39.

Referee: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire).