UNTIDY and ragged though, this was, it nonetheless represented the sort of game so beloved of all managers, From a coaching perspective there can be few more fulfilling sights than that of your team playing with carelessness yet still winning. It is the stuff of dreams.
The response to Manchester United's rise towards the summit of the Premiership has been one of startled bewilderment in some quarters but as manager Alex Ferguson said only recently his team's priorities have, hitherto, lain elsewhere. "It has been a good Christmas for us," said Ferguson afterwards as he gently chided those bookmakers who until recently were offering odds of 7-1 on a fourth United title in five seasons.
"I always knew it was going to be difficult to combine the differing demands of Premiership football and the Champions' League," he added. "But, we had got to the point where we said to ourselves, enough is enough, let's get down to playing the way we can'."
After three straight wins in the space of eight days anything - quite possibly everything - seems possible. Ferguson's side was fortunate though, for had they been up against accomplished, rather than merely worthy, opponents, they would have been beaten comfortably so.
Leeds United actually seemed to sense very early on that the ruthless streak which had carried United to emphatic wins over Sunderland and Nottingham Forest in the previous week was conspicuously absent. Sadly for them, crucially for United, unfortunately for Liverpool and Arsenal, they could do nothing about it. In what was a surprisingly timid affair, Leeds dominated for lengthy spells but, so painfully lightweight are they in midfield, they created Just one chance, Lucas Radebe mis kicking wildly after Peter Schmeichel had failed to gather Bowyer's first half corner.
Probably the best Leeds can hope for this season is a meaningful bonding of supporter and new manager. George Graham may talk grandly of a place in the top 10, of possible success in the FA Cup, but the revolution of thought and deed his arrival promised will not be embarked upon for some time and, when it is confirmed, he will embrace survival like an old flame.
In the summer months, when a manager's dirty work is undertaken, Graham will begin to drain the pool he inherited from Howard Wilkinson, moving on without ceremony or regret many of those players he chose to applaud at Old Trafford. Good management is no more than the art of making duplicitous behaviour appear acceptable and Graham has proved himself a most adept practitioner.
He is a wily old bird too. All week Tony Yeboah had rocked the boat by insisting he should be recalled after an eight month layoff. And so, with the "give him enough rope" theory to the fore, Graham bowed to the Ghanaian's demands. Before being hauled off mid way through the second half Yeboah, boasting all the mobility of an oak wardrobe, contributed nothing.
Carrying not only the massive burden of expectation but far too much weight, he resembled a hungover pub player, always one sprint away from exhaustion.
"He looked unfit and overweight," said Graham with the air of a vindicated man.
The argument was to be settled by Eric Cantona's orthodox penalty conversion after just nine minutes but it was the move which won the kick which was to provide the afternoon's one lingering memory. Cantona, half the player he can be but twice the player he was three weeks ago, swept forward imperiously, exchanging passes with Ryan Giggs who was hauled down by Gary Kelly as he shaped to shoot.
