Giggs: Wing Wonder

Rafa Benitez no doubt knew it all the time but if anyone, anywhere, had been too deeply influenced by his burst of counter-propaganda, here we had the reality of Manchester United's pursuit of a hat-trick of Premier League titles.

Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't do it entirely with what might be described as football's ultimate dirty tricks campaign.

He also spends quite a bit of time assembling players, not only of huge talent but also of deeply competitive character.

Players like, most notably in this evisceration of Chelsea's claims for a serious place in the race between United and Liverpool, Ryan Giggs.

Along with Paul Scholes, the 35-year-old Welshman is widely believed to be heading for his last run at the glory.

But then if ever Giggs feels a forlorn tug of longing for those days of his bounding and brilliant youth, a performance like this is surely a matter of the deepest satisfaction. The legs aren't so quick and the reflexes are, maybe, not so sharp but in the matter of understanding the dynamics of a match that simply has to be won, Giggs remains in an exclusive class indeed.

This was especially evident in the moments just before half-time when he helped lift United on to an entirely superior level of effort and performance in the 3-0 win over Chelsea at Old Trafford.

Before the eruption, Benitez had reason to hope that he might survive a little more profitably the weekend of psychological warfare that had appeared to have drifted away from him with the disappointment of a goalless draw at Stoke.

United, despite the alarming failure of Chelsea to strike anything like the routine force which was their stock in trade under the command of the watching Jose Mourinho, were making very little headway.

However, referee Howard Webb ruled out a United goal from a corner that was certainly cunning but legal in every respect.

Giggs, in the way of superior veterans, simply got on with the business of re-taking the corner, from which Nemanja Vidic promptly scored.

Long before the killing strokes were delivered by Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, United were indeed beginning to look again like a team who had returned to a mood that might produce some serious title-marching.

However, under the most serious analysis it was maybe not a triumph guaranteed to fill Anfield with too much alarm.

Yes, United displayed plenty of virtuosity towards the end - even the extraordinarily brittle temperament of Cristiano Ronaldo had steadied to the point where he was producing almost as many points of danger as tantrums, but there was certainly an uneven quality to much of the performance.

It was though Chelsea's desperate uncertainties had dragged United down from any expectation that they might be required to produce anything like the kind of commitment and nerve and fluency that went into the Champions League-winning performance in the spring.

When Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov struck up the levels of understanding that eventually separated the teams so profoundly, there was simply no market for the selfless and so often valuable work of Carlos Tevez.

Here, surely, is a force equipped to make a sustained impact on the title race and that Liverpool belief they can stay on at the front. - The Independent