Manchester United ... 1 Tottenham Hotspur ... 0 Whatever happened to Ryan Giggs? Where is the footballer who, on unfulfilling afternoons such as this, used to stand out like an exotic flower in a field of weeds? Where is the young man endowed with the talent to elevate himself among the elite of the world's most penetrative front players?
If Manchester United's recent proclivity for eking out 1-0 victories invites comparisons with the Arsenal side of yesteryear, there can be few similarities with the modern-day Gunners, and nobody typifies the lack of self-belief enshrouding Old Trafford more than the left-winger, whose game has become laced with trepidation.
The Welshman's decline is symptomatic of United's regression. To trace his last league goal at Old Trafford it is necessary to go back more than two years. Tension is inhibiting his talent, as if he has lost sight of what made him so formidable in the first place. And, in an increasingly unappreciative business, the most wretched form of his career is receiving neither patience nor understanding.
His substitution here drew the sort of snide cheers usually reserved for the withdrawal of Juan Sebastian Veron after one of his more ineffectual displays. Giggs, surviving on reputation alone, had been a substitution waiting to happen.
Criticising United is dangerous territory these days. There are Old Trafford enforcers apparently oblivious to the fact that six goals in seven games (they had scored 22 at this stage last year) represents their most barren start to a league campaign since the 1973-74 relegation season.
The man from the Mirror has been added to the list of banished journalists after having the temerity to question Diego Forlan (28 appearances, one goal), and Alex Ferguson now instructs his staff, as their first job of the day, to scissor out any newspaper articles that might cause him offence.
Yet even Ferguson, that fierce protector of his own, would have to concede that Giggs has never looked so impotent. Neither should anyone believe it to be a coincidence the manager has opted to overlook Giggs, traditionally his stand-in captain whenever Roy Keane is absent, in favour of David Beckham.
Sadly, all we got from Ferguson on Saturday, through a brief and nauseatingly sycophantic question-and-answer session with the club's subscription TV channel, was some cliched claptrap about a win being a win, followed by the rather preposterous statement that his side could have won by six goals. It was equally true that this was a match in which Tottenham might have pilfered a draw or more.
With a greater sense of adventure Spurs could have prospered. Instead they invited pressure on themselves and could not cope when United finally worked up a head of steam. Gary Doherty's crude trip on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the most blatant penalty seen at Old Trafford for all of 45 seconds, the same player having inexplicably not been punished for flattening Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and the Dutchman sent Kasey Keller the wrong way for United's third league win, all 1-0.
MAN UTD: Barthez, Phil Neville, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Beckham, Veron (Gary Neville 76), Butt, Giggs (Pugh 85), van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer (Forlan 76). Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Stewart. Booked: van Nistelrooy. Goals: van Nistelrooy 63 pen.
TOTTENHAM: Keller, Thatcher, Richards, Doherty, Etherington, Redknapp, Bunjevcevic, Davies, Sheringham (Acimovic 85), Keane, Iversen (Ferdinand 76). Subs Not Used: Hirschfeld, Ricketts, Henry. Booked: Richards.
Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).
