SOCCER/Manchester United 2, Bolton Wanderers 0: Trust Wayne Rooney to take Boxing Day, as it's known in Britain, literally, reports David Hopps at Old Trafford
The suspicion that Manchester United have bought the most combustible talent in the game, an investment to make the oil price look stable, gained further credence yesterday after a petulant punch for which he should have been dismissed.
This was the most unremarkable of derbies, with a straightforward United win signalled by Ryan Giggs's 10th-minute opening goal, Bolton succumbing meekly to their fifth successive defeat, and boiling blood nowhere to be seen.
But Rooney still managed to make his own controversy, swinging out at Bolton's Israeli international, Tal Ben Haim, in first-half stoppage time, and presumably escaping only because the officials did not see the incident.
Ben Haim's challenge was clumsy, the intervention of a player who looked out of his depth. Rooney should have considered it, laughed inwardly at his supremacy and got on with it. Instead came the pugnacious approach and the swing of his right hand that might yet interest the FA's video panel.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson did not see it that way, though. "I saw it on the monitor. It was an embarrassment. The Bolton player - dearie, dearie me - the Bolton player should be embarrassed by that. That was as good a performance as I have seen this season by the referee. He let things go."
Indeed, he did. Dermot Gallagher generally managed the match well, but as far as the Rooney incident was concerned, he was looking upfield and was reliant on his assistant, who was better placed, but saw nothing outrageous.
It will also be pleaded in mitigation that this could not be correctly termed a punch because Rooney's fist was not closed. Such pleas are an irrelevance: Rooney jabbed his right hand into the face of Ben Haim. It was aimed and deliberate. He should have been dismissed.
Bolton manager Sam Allardyce was more persuasive. "He went down rather too easily," he admitted, "but there is no doubt that Wayne Rooney punched him in the face and under today's rules he would have been sent off."
Ben Haim may have fallen a bit theatrically, but when it came to the pantomime season, it was Rooney who fulfilled the role of the villain. There were 67,867 witnesses to Rooney's latest act of madness, not all of them entirely unprejudiced perhaps, but making up the record attendance in Premiership history.
The Old Trafford support remains impressive, this season's unbeaten home record remains, and Ferguson could draw satisfaction from how his team controlled the game throughout, but it would be a brave United fan who would proclaim after this they will win the Premiership.
By kick-off, Arsenal and Chelsea had both won and Chelsea's margin over United was 12 points. If there is to be a Premiership recovery by United it will not be in routine victories like this one, but away form as powerful as anything they have ever produced.
If ever a team looked ripe for the taking it was Bolton. Their Premiership escapades have won many friends, and in Allardyce they have that rare thing: an English-born manager who has deserved comparison with the best.
But this was a different Bolton. This was a side that had not won in seven matches, who were hurtling through mid-table and in which Allardyce had lost patience. He dropped five players, among them Jay-Jay Okocha, Bruno N'Gotty and Henrik Pedersen; strange timing.
A trip to Old Trafford had seemed daunting enough without Allardyce deciding over Christmas that enough was enough.
The shake-up only extended Bolton's malaise. They were behind after 10 minutes. Gabriel Heinze's left-wing cross was intended for either Rooney or Darren Fletcher, but evaded both of them. It fell instead to Giggs, who had switched flanks, and whose athletic volley from six yards punished slack marking by Julio Cesar.
John O'Shea had scored in last week's 5-2 demolition of Crystal Palace and had clearly gained a taste for it.
His shot from the right of the area even carried an attempted curl with the outside of the foot, but the execution did not quite match the ambition.
The Senegal striker, El-Hadji Diouf, remained for Bolton, with Allardyce's remonstrations still ringing after his three-match ban for spitting. Allardyce, basically, had told him to grow up, although presumably ambling around like a 40-year-old was not what he had in mind. Diouf was substituted five minutes into the second half and his waves to the Bolton supporters were not entirely reciprocated.
Three Bolton substitutions gave them a glimmer of hope, and they mustered a passing move or two, but it was Rooney's stooping header which almost stole a second after Jussi Jaaskelainen had parried Paul Scholes's 20-yard shot.
Giggs, in excellent form, amid reports that a new contract will have to come with a swingeing pay cut, should have provided a warming climax three minutes from time. He broke clear from halfway and as he approached the penalty area, with no defender in sight, more than 60,000 gave throaty approval to what seemed a certain goal.
Giggs jinked left, but the venom was lacking and Jaaskelainen fell to his right to save.
Less than a minute later, Giggs dashed through a broken Bolton central defence again. This time it smacked of frustration. He was crowded out, but the ball fell into Scholes's path. From 20 yards, his aim was unerring and Jaaskelainen was beaten low to his right.
United had their second, after all; Scholes had seven goals in 10 against Bolton.
Scholes had not trained all week because of the flu bug sweeping through Old Trafford - Gary Neville and Eric Djemba-Djemba were sent home at lunchtime yesterday - but he turned up for Christmas Day training and announced that he felt much better.
It was the final piece of luck that Ferguson needed.
Guardian Service
