London - Well, that didn’t take long. There were seconds remaining before half-time when Manchester United’s faithful announced they were going to win the league.
Now you’ve got to believe them? Well, not exactly. As regulars at White Hart Lane will testify, Queens Park Rangers have the ability to make a useful team look like world-beaters, only for the next weekend to bring a nasty surprise.
Even so, for a club that was in crisis a matter of weeks ago, this was powerful stuff. United’s ability to challenge for the very top spot this season may still be open to question but this is a team, and a club, on the march now, fuelled by massive investment, dwarfing the likes of promoted QPR.
Old Trafford is intimidating again, too. Its red shirts carry a threat, as does the mere sight of the team sheet. These are the Premier League galacticos, the best of two continents expensively combined as an exhilarating attacking force.
Just a point behind Liverpool and Arsenal already, there is no reason why Manchester United should not set automatic qualification for the Champions League as a viable target. Matches against Everton and Chelsea next month may show them whether they can hope for more.
And this wasn’t even United at full strength. Radamel Falcao made his debut from the bench after 67 minutes. Soon he will start. El Tigre will give United even greater bite, even if he will be disappointed with an 84th-minute miss, after Robert Green could only parry a shot from the excellent Daley Blind.
Green recovered well to block, but one imagines other goalkeepers will not be so lucky as the season progresses. For now, however, United will have to make do with £60million Angel di Maria.
He is the most expensive signing in Premier League history and, on his home debut, looked as if he has a more than even chance of living up to that billing.
This was an outstanding performance, and hugely influential, too.
Di Maria scored the first, inspired the second and assisted in the fourth. He demonstrated the engine that was so valuable to Real Madrid last season and the invention that Van Gaal believes will transform what was an increasingly pedestrian midfield.
He got the breaks at times, too. The first and the fourth had the feel of good fortune about them, even though the end result was no more than he, and United, deserved.
United had the lion’s share of early possession but little end product. Juan Mata shot over after eight minutes and Robin van Persie took the ball off Ander Herrera’s toes after 16. Yet QPR will have felt they were holding out well when Clint Hill made a foolish foul 30 yards out on United’s right flank - fatal with so many dead-ball specialists in one team.
The free-kick was not within range of a direct shot, however, so the rest packed the box while Di Maria elected to provide delivery.
That the ball swung in and kicked up with one bounce and into Green’s net, therefore, is a little fortunate, no matter Di Maria’s statement to the contrary.
He says he was practising the same manoeuvre in training on Saturday, but his shot certainly did not look to be intended.
What is less questionable, however, is that Di Maria knowingly targeted football’s own corridor of uncertainty, and that this can occasionally hit the jackpot by taking the goalkeeper by surprise.
Missed by the forwards, missed by the defenders, Di Maria caught Green off guard and, although he scrambled across as best he could, it was to no avail.
Di Maria was already off and running - to the wrong corner, actually, but as an Old Trafford newbie he can be forgiven - shaping his hand in the trademark heart celebration much loved by Gareth Bale. Someone should tell him we hadn’t exactly been missing it.
And with that goal, QPR’s best-laid plans fell apart. They had been singularly unadventurous to begin with, a lone striker in Charlie Austin, a packed midfield and deep defence. At times they had all 11 in the final third but what use was that now?
They probed nervously in search of an opening, received two sharp slaps by way of return and the game was over before half-time. On this occasion it was the sheer industry of Di Maria that was responsible. No hint of luck second time around. He broke from the back and carried the ball close to 50 yards before slipping it to Wayne Rooney, much maligned in some quarters, but captain of club and country nonetheless.
Rooney is nothing if not persistent and having been closed down sharply, he refused to give up, winning the loose ball and feeding it to Herrera. Within sight of goal, the Spaniard was clinical. His shot, struck low across Green, settled in the far corner and one could almost hear the air seeping from QPR’s balloon as Old Trafford erupted.
Shortly before half-time, a third, and the contest was concluded. Herrera to Mata and on to Rooney, who had too much time on the edge of the area with Steven Caulker slow to close him down. We’ve seen this film before and know the ending only too well; it was time for Green to trudge the short steps to the back of his goal, to pick the ball out once more.
This is taking nothing away from Manchester United but, frankly, they could not have been gifted better opponents had Van Gaal been allowed to select them personally. Rangers are bedding in, too, but with players of reduced quality by comparison and Harry Redknapp’s league record at Old Trafford could not be worse: this was his 15th visit and he has overseen 15 defeats.
Rio Ferdinand’s presence at the back did little to change the narrative, either. He was given a warm reception by the locals and a presentation by Sir Bobby Charlton before kick-off, but once the action began, niceties ceased. He ended up giving United a present back: the fourth goal, scored by Mata after 58 minutes. Di Maria attempted a shot from distance, miscued - although he may well claim he has been mastering the art of deception in training, too - and saw it curl across goal.
It was inexplicably ignored by Ferdinand and snaffled by Mata at the far post.
There is speculation over where David Moyes’s marquee signing will fit into Van Gaal’s regime and he was soon replaced by Falcao. If his opportunities are to be reduced, at least he made this one count.
Adnan Januzaj, on for Di Maria, who received a deserved ovation, should have scored and one imagines United will become more precise in front of goal as confidence grows. QPR did not really stand a chance once the red momentum began. The gulf between Manchester United and their contemporaries has rarely looked more obvious: on and off the field.
Daily Mail