Just a shaft of light for United

AS a keen student of the sport of kings, Alex Ferguson needs little reminding of the sticky fate of Devon Loch.

Only a collapse of similar magnitude by Chelsea on Sunday will open the door to Manchester United’s dogged attempt to set new benchmarks in English football.

To their credit, Sunderland were true to the insistence by their manager Steve Bruce that they would not roll over and gift his former club the points they required to maintain their hopes of clinching a record 19th top flight crown, a fourth consecutive one in the Premier League.

The utter gulf in class between the sides, however, was a gap the hosts were never likely to bridge as the visitors secured a fourth straight victory at the Stadium of Light to stretch their 13-year unbeaten league run in these parts.

Frustratingly for Ferguson, Liverpool failed to keep their side of the bargain earlier in the day. United’s bitter rivals were predictably supine in their meek surrender at the hands of the league leaders to ensure only a final day finish to rival the unfortunate Grand National nag of yesteryear by the champions-elect will divert the helicopter hovering the M6 corridor from Stamford Bridge to Old Trafford and prevent them from ending their rivals’ three season hegemony.

Ferguson admitted United are clutching at straws as they look for Wigan to do them an unexpected favour in the capital at the weekend, with United confidently expected to account for a Stoke City beset by dressing room rife.

Bruce, who lost Republic of Ireland midfielder David Meyler to a serious knee injury before the break to cap an afternoon to forget, concurred.

“It takes it to the last game but it’d take an almighty crash by Chelsea for United to nip in there at the death. I can’t see Wigan beating them, it’s a big ask,” admitted the man who lifted United’s first Premier League trophy in 1993 and continued the theme by including three former United players in his starting line-up.

“United will keep going right until the end, but Chelsea are strong favourites,” he added, after failing in his 14th attempt to seal a first victory over his mentor Ferguson. As a contest, this was the biggest 1-0 hammering United have handed out this season, for all the good it will do them in what looks like a futile pursuit of the leaders, who they trail by one point, with, crucially, a vastly inferior goal difference. Their only disappointment here was not cutting that deficit as they spurned chance after chance to embarrass their out-classed hosts.

In front of almost 48,000 fans, including Fabio Capello’s right-hand man Franco Baldini, there to check on the returning Wayne Rooney who looked sharp after a single-match absence with groin trouble, the result was in little doubt from the opening skirmishes.

Darren Bent, an outsider to make the plane to South Africa after a goal-laden season for his mid-table side, can kiss goodbye to that particular dream after his latest no-show in front of watching England scouts. In mitigation, he was afforded scant service by his team-mates, who were fully stretched attempting to quell United to overly entertain thoughts of launching ripostes in the opposite direction.

Edwin van der Sar, in a rare moment of activity, saved from Steed Malbranque and Lorik Cana and John Mensah went close with headers, but that was as good as it got for the hosts.

“You couldn’t fault our effort but we huffed and puffed and didn’t really create anything,” Bruce admitted. It was only Sunderland’s third home defeat in the league this season, and their first this year, but they could have had few arguments had the margin of this setback been four or five. After Portuguese midfielder Nani swept home his third league goal of the campaign midway through the first-half, an angled drive to round-off a neat five-man move in the Sunderland box to break the deadlock, Dimitar Berbatov was chief culprit in their failure to provide a true reflection of their dominance.

Defender Michael Turner almost diverted Ryan Giggs’ cross into his own net shortly afterwards, before Berbatov took centre-stage with an unwanted hat-trick of misses, the first from a narrow angle with only Craig Gordon to beat, the second in front of an open goal, the third from one of many inviting Giggs centres as the hosts were carved open with alarming ease.

There remained time for Turner to clear off the line from Michael Carrick as the visitors, not Sunderland, pressed for the contest’s second goal.

Stoke should provide similarly willing but limited opposition at the weekend as United look to round-off the campaign with a victory. The only problem is that Chelsea, with the winning line within sight, will be thinking exactly the same about what they can expect from Wigan.

MATCH RATING: ** – Sunderland fulfilled manager Steve Bruce’s promise not to roll over, but there was simply no way they could bridge the significant gulf in class between the sides.

REFEREE: Steve Bennett (Kent) 6 - One of the sporting world’s more high-profile victims of the fall-out from the Icelandic volcano eruption had considerably less problems from both sets of players than he did in his efforts to return overland from a conference in Romania last week.