MANCHESTER United bare almost there. Newcastle United's race is almost run. Far from going to a play-off, the Premiership may not even last the distance.
An initially nervous but ultimately commanding performance against Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford yesterday, rounded off by one of Eric Cantona's more regal gestures, has left Alex Ferguson's team sitting on its haunches just short of the winning post and gazing down the back straight.
Newcastle are still in view, but Manchester United's 5-0 victory has left them six points in front and seven ahead on goal difference. Unless Kevin Keegan's players take at least four points from tonight's match at Leeds and Thursday's at Forest the contest will struggle to stay alive on the final day.
Stould Newcastle lose either, Manchester United's third Premiership title in four seasons will merely be a celebration delayed. In those circumstances Newcastle would have to win the other game by a margin comparable to that achieved at Old Trafford yesterday simply to give Manchester United something to do at Middlesbrough next Sunday while Tottenham are at St James' Park.
Yesterday Manchester United ultimately played like champions. They owed much to Ryan Giggs, Cantona and David Beckham. Significantly they owed an equal amount to Paul Scholes.
It was United's biggest home win since their 9-0 thrashing of Ipswich 13 months earlier. In that match Andy Cole scored five times. Yesterday he watched on the bench as Scholes calmed Old Trafford's nerves with the first of two goals United scored in four minutes shortly before half-time before playing significant parts in another two without actually touching the ball.
In the Leeds game, after another series of misses, Cole had been taken off by Ferguson to ironic cheers from the stands. Yesterday the United manager explained that. having decided to use Scholes up front, it was a simple matter to leave out Cole, the first time he has been dropped.
Strikers who cost £7 million are never that easily discarded but Cole will be wondering about his place for the FA Cup final against Liverpool on Saturday week.
For half an hour Nottingham Forest's crowding of the midfield and stifling of space in the approaches to goal looked like frustrating United to the point of desperation. United's final passes were either predictable or awry. Giggs, having moved inside with Lee Sharpe wide on the left, was only a spasmodic threat.
Ferguson's decision to reverse the roles of Giggs and Sharpe, moving the Welshman back to the left, was starting to have an affect. In the 41st minute it led to United taking the lead.
Jason Lee, whose poor control as Forest's lone striker regularly set off United counter-attacks, gave the ball away and Roy Keane immediately found Giggs in space. Alf Haaland was outwitted on the byline by a drop of the shoulder and a wiggle of the hips and Scholes deflected Giggs's waist-high centre past goalkeeper Mark Crossley with the natural scorer's aplomb.
Three minutes later United scored a second in extraordinary fashion. Beckham took an indirect free-kick near the left-hand byline and cracked the ball towards the net. Crossley, though he could have let the ball go by, instinctively punched it clear to Cantona, whose attempt at a volley from the right screwed back across the penalty area for Beckham to head in. Between the free-kick and the goal the ball had not touched the ground.
The rest, for United, was a victory parade. Nine minutes into the second half Cantona threaded the ball out to Denis Irwin, Scholes dummied over the low cross and Beckham drove in his second goal.
After 69 minutes Giggs gathered a return pass from Cantona, spotted Scholes haring through the middle and, in trying to find him with a through-ball, scored himself as the pace of the pass beat Crossley.
That would have been enough for Old Trafford but Cantona was not done. He collected a ball from Sharpe, ran at a retreating Forest defence and trapped a rebound from Steve Chettle on his chest before hooking Manchester United's fifth goal past Crossley.
