Manchester United secured a 3-0 victory over Tottenham in their first game of the season at Old Trafford on Monday.
Danny Welbeck repaid the faith shown in him by Sir Alex Ferguson since the start of the season, with the 20-year-old influential in both United's first two goals, whilst Wayne Rooney grabbed his second of the campaign to cap off a fine evening for the Premier League champions.
Tottenham custodian Brad Friedel was forced into action first in the battle of keepers, diving agilely to save Tom Cleverley’s well struck effort from the edge of the box that had seemed destined for the bottom right hand corner of his goal.
Not until just before the half hour mark did United threaten again, with Rooney’s dinked cross finding Ashley Young in the box, who peeled off Benoit Assou-Ekotto well, only to see his looped header just evade the top right hand corner of the Tottenham goal.
The visitor’s were limited to shots from distance, with David de Gea overcoming the barrage of mid-week criticism and dealing comfortably with efforts from Gareth Bale and Van der Vaart.
Harry Redknapp's side enjoyed a dominant spell of possession early in the second half, but again lacked the vision and incisiveness to make it count in the final third, with United instead once again peppering the Spur’s goalmouth with shots from Young, Anderson and Rooney in succession.
The deadlock was finally broken after 60 minutes, when Cleverley's fierce cross was met in the air by Welbeck, who drifted in between the Tottenham centre-backs unmarked and guided the ball into the left hand corner of Friedel’s goal.
United's second was pure class, with Anderson starting a sweeping move from defence after being released by a De Gea throw.
The ball eventually found its way to Anderson, who fed the ball through to Welbeck in the box, who in turn played a delightful back heeled pass into the path of Anderson that wrong-footed both Michael Dawson and Friedel, with the Brazilian sweeping the ball into the back of the net to give the home side a two-goal advantage.
Spurs were then unlucky not to take advantage of a questionable moment from De Gea, who failed to collect Corluka’s cross whilst under pressure from substitute Roman Pavyluchenko, with Defoe lashing his effort off the left hand post after the ball landed at his feet.
Rooney was on hand to add a third after 87 minutes, rising well to meet Ryan Gigg’s cross and nod the ball into the back of the net to cap a convincing display from the current Premier League champions.
The victory puts Ferguson’s side level on points with Wolves and rivals Manchester City, with all three sides enjoying a perfect start to the season.