FA Premiership/ Manchester Utd 4 Fulham 2: Ruud van Nistelrooy plays on the edge - not just on the edge of a defence, or even the edge of the laws, but on the edge of an opposing manager's sanity. Chris Coleman should know the feeling only too well.
Quite how Coleman expects to instil self-control into his Fulham players when he marches to the touchline for a snarl at the officials and is sent off in the process is hard to imagine but van Nistelrooy's life on the edge can do that to a manager still searching for his first away win in the Premiership this season.
Van Nistelrooy was offside by a couple of feet in the build-up to United's third goal but the instant freeze-frame video analysis that was available to Coleman in the dugout, and which lent instant credence to his ranting and raging, did not do justice to a great striker's eye for a main chance. As Alex Ferguson had said before the match: "Ruud's ability to create space in the box is incredible."
Coleman, sent to the stands by the referee Martin Atkinson, was in no mood to form a van Nistelrooy mutual admiration society. "I said something to the officials which probably wasn't very nice," he said, "but it was such a poor decision. He was in a perfect position to see it and I just do not understand why he got it wrong. If I make a mistake I get criticised, so why shouldn't the officials?"
The answer is that van Nistelrooy's subtle shifts of direction can bemuse a linesman as much as a defender and it is about time managers accepted as much. Carlos Bocanegra played him offside efficiently but the linesman misread it. Van Nistelrooy's shot was parried by Antti Niemi and the tap-in fell to Louis Saha.
Why is the football world routinely all-forgiving towards managers who cannot handle human error in a dignified fashion? Sympathy for Coleman was widespread.
Coleman's Fulham were a rum lot. They attacked with panache and their two combative strikers, Brian McBride and Heidar Helguson, were far too powerful in the air for United's dubious defence but their own shakiness when not in possession explained why they have the worst away record in all four English leagues.
That encouraged United to play gift-shop football in a first half containing five goals. Their attacking forays possessed appeal, they glittered and dazzled, none more so than Cristiano Ronaldo, but at times it all looked a bit superficial. They have no home game for five weeks and their true task is not to close the gap on Chelsea but to maintain their advantage over Liverpool.
United had a two-goal advantage in 14 minutes. Park Ji-sung's first Premiership goal owed everything to a fortunate deflection: his intended chip diverted past Niemi off the back of Bocanegra. If Niemi's static response was understandable for the first goal, it was less so for the second. Ronaldo's 25-yard free-kick dipped a lot and swerved a little but Niemi should have got some sort of dive in.
Fulham's response - McBride's far-post header as he beat Gary Neville to Liam Rosenoir's right-wing cross - was swiftly cancelled out by the offside goal but they pulled back to 3-2 eight minutes before half-time. Once again a Fulham player reached the byline, Wayne Bridge outdoing Park, and once again a United full back was overpowered at the far post, Helguson proving too strong for Patrice Evra.
Evra is an intriguing signing, more wing back than full back. He is polished in possession but is not certain to stiffen United defensively. He was booked for a wild challenge on Rosenior but it was Evra, not Rosenior, who was injured in the process.
Fulham twice might have equalised early in the second half as Steed Malbranque and Helguson both ran unchallenged from midway. Ferguson was forced to stiffen central areas by the introduction of Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic. It did the trick and United's fourth, a slick finish from Ronaldo after van Nistelrooy had again come close, finally stilled Fulham's challenge.
