Manchester United 4, Sunderland 1: Alex Ferguson wondered if it was a new underhand ploy, Peter Reid feigned ignorance but the latest attempt to nullify David Beckham's dead-ball threat is clearly not a goer. New haircut, new boots, same old Becks.
Aside from gawping at Manchester United's effervescent brilliance or shuddering at Sunderland's inability either to retain possession or to defend, the talk at Old Trafford on Saturday revolved around the England captain's first-half free-kick awarded for Stanislav Varga's push on Ryan Giggs.
The Slovakian's protest earned a caution and Ferguson suggested he had deliberately provoked the referee Rob Styles into moving the ball forward to the edge of the area. Beckham's grimace at the flash of yellow suggested displeasure - faced with a cluttered goalmouth, even he might fail to thread a shot through. But there is no containing the champions at the moment. If it was a tactic, it proved no more successful than Reid's ultra-defensive formation.
Styles took five strides forward, not the full 10, one of which Beckham reclaimed as he laid down the ball before thumping it beyond a despairing Jürgen Macho. United, and Beckham in particular, never looked back.
After all the contract shenanigans and niggling back injuries, this was a flash-back to the tireless 26-year-old who inspired England's qualification for the World Cup back in the autumn. His new Predator boots almost purred as they whipped crosses into the area from either flank.
"He ran a million miles for us out there," said Ferguson, "and there was so much quality on the end of it".
"He had a great game," said the visiting midfielder Claudio Reyna, whose own creditable efforts, alongside those of Kevin Phillips, failed miserably to eclipse his opponent. "His work-rate was very impressive but that's not a secret. It clearly helps that their midfielders are used to playing together as a quartet.
"They know how to cover each other, one pushing up while another comes back. Their play's so fluid; United seem to be getting better with each game they play."
By comparison, Sunderland, without a win in seven, are nosediving with the hapless Varga so traumatised he had to be substituted at the break. In truth, the home side were so irresistible that this was no gauge of the visitors' survival prospects; but they are looking increasingly grim.
The Wearsiders came to defend, strung five across the back and Darren Williams only marginally ahead of them, but the tactic - hopeful at best - backfired spectacularly.
"We got dragged all over the place," grimaced Reid, who watch horrified as his side, crammed with eight natural defenders, dillied, dallied and were destroyed.
It took United only six minutes to run them ragged, Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer combining to send Phil Neville scurrying into the area. The full back fired home beneath the exposed Macho for his second goal of the season, doubling his best ever term's tally.
Only then did Sunderland stir, Kevin Phillips - brilliant but cruelly isolated for much of the afternoon - plucking a skimmer from nowhere to catch out Fabien Barthez from 25 yards.
"We were clinging on to the hope that the goal would make them a bit edgy," said Reyna, "but there was no time for them to get nervous."
Beckham's free-kick 13 minutes later saw to that and Van Nistelrooy's outrageous turn away from the debutant Jonas Bjorklund and his crashed finish three minutes later took the breath away.
Varga's hand-off on Giggs just before the break and the Dutchman's emphatic penalty, his 20th goal in 17 games, proved how dazed and confused Sunderland had become. In between, Beckham rattled a post from the edge of the area.
After the first-half goal deluge the second period was a damp squib, enlivened only by Paul Scholes's stinging drive, tipped aside by Macho.
The rumours over Ferguson's successor may rumble on - Louis van Gaal's name cropped up again at the weekend - but with each passing week it just looks easier and easier for the champions.
MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, Phil Neville, Gary Neville, Blanc (O'Shea 64), Silvestre, Beckham, Keane (Butt 79), Scholes, Giggs (Forlan 64), Solskjaer, van Nistelrooy. Subs Not Used: Carroll, Irwin. Goals: Phil Neville 6, Beckham 25, van Nistelrooy 28, 44 pen.
SUNDERLAND: Macho, Haas (McCartney 61), Craddock, Varga (Arca 45), Bjorklund, Gray, Williams, Reyna, McAteer (Quinn 61), Kilbane, Phillips. Subs Not Used: Ingham, Bellion. Booked: Bjorklund, Varga, Reyna. Goals: Phillips 12.
Referee: R Styles (Waterlooville).
