The temptation while the champions are in this sort of mood is to believe the title race is about to be suffocated by anticlimax as never before. Look to the relegation zone for bursts of nerve-shredding tension, the quest for Europe for sudden twists and turns; but do not expect anything but an Old Trafford celebration next May.
It may come sooner. United won the title by 18 points last season, and the way they are beginning to dispose of opponents with a shrug of indifference and the occasional snort of derision suggests it could be another country mile.
As Derby can testify after an afternoon of United keep-ball in which the home side could not muster a single effort on goal, never mind an attack worthy of the description, the gulf between the best and the rest is expanding all the time.
"They won the European Cup two years ago but they're an even better side now," said the Derby manager Jim Smith. "If you ask me, they're the best team in Europe, if not the world.
"On the scale of who you could get points from it's getting to the stage now where Manchester United are zero. Most of them have been playing together since the age of 12, and now they're coming to their peak it's awesome to watch.
"You think they are going along in third or fourth gear and then it's bang, bang, goal. You just can't get the ruddy ball. For the rest of us, it's frightening really."
This was exhibition stuff, the only surprise being that Alex Ferguson's team were made to wait so long before turning their superiority into the hard currency of goals. The first half was perhaps one of the most comprehensive 0-0 thrashings the Premiership has witnessed as Derby were being tickled to death.
Teddy Sheringham got things rolling just after the hour with an adroit finish to a typical United move combining equal measures of fluency and creativity; and with that an air of inevitability descended on Pride Park.
Nicky Butt doubled the lead from 25 yards, Dwight Yorke rounded things off with his fourth of the season and in the end Ferguson could even substitute his goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, bringing on Raimond van der Gouw for nine minutes of jogging on the spot and precious little else.
"Aye," sighed Smith. "I was just surprised they didn't replace the keeper with another centre-forward."
Derby: Poom, Riggott, Carbonari (Eranio 67), West, Johnson, Martin (Sturridge 67), O'Neil (Morris 45), Powell, Kinkladze, Christie, Delap. Subs Not Used: Higginbotham, Oakes. Booked: Martin, Johnson.
Manchester United: Barthez (Van Der Gouw 80), G Neville, Irwin, Brown, Silvestre, Butt, Keane, Chadwick (Fortune 74), Scholes (Solskjaer 73), Sheringham, Yorke. Subs Not Used: Johnsen, Greening. Booked: Butt. Goals: Sheringham 61, Butt 69, Yorke 76.
Referee: D Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill).
