Manchester Utd - 3 Birmingham - 0 Another red card, another Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty and another managerial moan that did not amount to much under analysis.
At the end, Manchester United were back in successful business and Alex Ferguson, having administered the hairdryer treatment in midweek, was now applying the conditioner and balm. "The boys did me and themselves proud today," he purred.
After the slip-up in Stuttgart, this meeting with hitherto booming Birmingham might have been billed as United's domestic accident waiting to happen. But even Rio Ferdinand, disorientated in Germany, kept his bearings. That was encouraging for England, and even more so was the radiant football of Paul Scholes, the man whom Ferguson describes as giving his team "an alternative dimension".
Sven-Goran Eriksson may well need this dimension when all hell is let loose next Saturday. Scholes, emerging from the deep, was scorer, creator and forever elusive - here, there and everywhere, like an untrappable wasp on a windscreen. Whether or not Michael Owen is fit for Istanbul, the United midfielder can be a major irritant to Turkey.
Steve Bruce was stung into indignation over Maik Taylor's red card but did not begrudge the quality of Scholes in drawing the goalkeeper's fateful challenge.
"Scholes did what he's good at," said Birmingham's manager, "And got there just before the goalkeeper. Plenty of outfield players have tried to tackle Scholes and failed." For Bruce, it was one thing for Birmingham to lose their first Premiership match of the season, another to suffer the long-term consequences of the red card - three punishments in one, he claimed, including Taylor being banned for the upcoming derby with Aston Villa.
"All right, it's a penalty, but surely that's sufficient. It was a 50-50 challenge and he [Taylor, presumably] made a mistake.
"The refs have to obey the letter of the law, otherwise they're marked down. Unless we address this situation, we're always going to be talking about refereeing incidents. He's not allowed to use his common sense."
There was some sympathy for Bruce's appeal to natural justice, but such a course will take football's judges into the dark room for even longer than the video advisory panel. But one referee's common sense is different from another's. This is the road to even greater inconsistency - the bane of managers' lives - not less.
Under the law Taylor, as last man, simply had to be dismissed for upending Scholes. Ferguson, without any desire to fan the flames, agreed with Mike Dean's decision - "Any goalkeeper is going to go for that." With Taylor's banishment went any Birmingham hope of holding the champions. But Bruce was again wrong in asserting that the incident "ruined the game as a spectacle".
Save for Scholes's flourishes, and some wonderful theatrics from Christophe Dugarry - the Frenchman was at his most feckless - the spectacle was as flat as a Brummie accent. Birmingham came to contain, not conquer, and as the first half deepened, United seemed becalmed.
Van Nistelrooy broke his barren penalty run - a hat-trick of domestic failures - by changing his habit and driving to the keeper's left side. So the stand-in Ian Bennett was beaten and Birmingham's defence breached for the first time in 5 hours and 54 minutes of Premiership action.
Birmingham kept right on to the end, but it was a procession towards Bennett's goal, apart from a glaring failure by Jamie Clapham to exploit Gary Neville's lapse of concentration.
Scholes shot low and true from 20 yards for the second goal and Ryan Giggs, from Diego Forlan's piercing pass, slid in the third. It was all hard on Kenny Cunningham and Matthew Upson, who had previously formed a central pair without a league goal against them this season.
Throughout, the crowd made appreciative noises about Darren Fletcher, the 19-year-old midfielder making his home debut.
"A very intelligent, lovely, balanced player," said Ferguson. Praise indeed.
