15th December vs Wolves. 3-0

United’s goal of the season – scored by Valencia and created by Gibson, Scholes and the genius of Berbatov – rounded off a more than comfortable evening at Old Trafford last night, as United ran away with a 3-0 victory that made us level on points (if only for 24 hours) and nicely pumped up our goal-difference.

Wolves looked determined in the first half, even though they were playing their reserves; as McCarthy made 10 changes to the side that beat Tottenham a few days ago. Yet, once Rooney converted his penalty after Zubar pointlessly handballed from Gibo’s corner and Vidic scored one of his trademark yet, nowadays, rather rare header (his first goal of the season), you knew there would be no coming back for enthusiastic Wolves.

Whatever McCarthy’s point was in his team selection, it failed miserably. His side were effectively battered by half-time, even though the Champions gave yet another lacklustre performance, and the travelling fans – who chanted ‘we want our money back’ – were clearly not best pleased at the display their unfamiliar side gave.

They gave us a scare early on when Maierhofer was given the chance of a lifetime to grab a goal at the Stretford; yet he decided instead to rather kindly save us the blushes and conveniently sky it over.

Literally other than that, Wolves gave little response; and after falling two goals down on 43 minutes, they inevitably struggled to pick up the same momentum and eagerness to play as they had provided in the first half.

At 2-0 with an hour gone you are thinking one of two things. Either that we’ll play the game out and provide a dull final half an hour where possession is the only thing we care about; or we ignore this boring and potentially dangerous approach and instead of letting the opposition belive they have a glimmer of hope, we close the game off; saving the best till last.

Gibson’s back-healed volley fell into the path of Scholes, who lobbed it over the head of the running Berbatov; then, as if he could already read the headlines in tomorrows papers as the sceptics joyfully suggested the £30million man yet again gave a typically ‘lazy’, ‘ineffectual’, ‘unproductive’ performance, he showed agility, skill and above awareness to flick the ball over his head to the approaching Valencia. The finish was also class, as Antonio belted it in on the half-volley to complete the nights action and of course, complete the incredible move. But it was the assist that was not only most highly revered by the players, who immediately ran over to Berbatov, however most talked about in those Wednesday morning publications.

At United, we have never had a problem with Berbatov. We know his style and his approach, and we appreciate what he offers. The price-tag is the only thing that has been criticised by everyone – including himself – yet it is not his fault if Daniel Levy (refusing to sell to United) and City (with tonnes more money than sense) hyper-inflated it until we were forced to pay over the odds.

All I now hope is that some of those journalistic idiots in footballing world will finally open their minds and see that class is multifaceted.

If Dimitar – who has presumably, if not hopefully, completely overcome his injury problems – continues producing beautiful football of this calibre, as we saw with the assist at home to West Ham last season, as well as his goal against Sunderland in October, the naïve papers will look beyond his goalscoring record and look at his overall, impeccably classy impact.