United's dominance built on industry of Wayne Rooney

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Manchester United's dominance, built on the platform of Wayne Rooney's industry, left Chelsea looking decidedly sluggish by comparison. The home side had brief flurries of urgency before half-time and at the end of the game but generally lacked the verve and dynamism to disturb Manchester United's rhythm.

The visitors were solid, assured and broke quickly. United comfortably covered any threat from Chelsea's full-backs breaking forward and most importantly held sway in midfield, where Rooney slipped back smoothly to help Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick.

Rooney displayed physical and moral courage. He resisted tackles galore and no little terrace abuse. Concentrating on his game, he is still a diamond with rough edges but a man of great appetite for football.

When United play 4-4-2 with Rooney as the second striker, his midfielders must smile in appreciation of his assistance. He gives them so much support and makes their jobs easier when their opponents have possession. Here Carrick and Giggs, supported by Rooney, formed a central trio when Chelsea started to build attack (see diagram).

In the first half Chelsea were their own worst enemies, passing haphazardly and sideways, with José Bosingwa crossing poorly on the few occasions he did manage to get forward. They were unable to force the game and, in truth, Chelsea narrow the field whereas the more adventurous United open the game out with greater width.

Rooney, playing with immense energy throughout, consistently dropped off and found space to initiate counterattacks. With Antonio Valencia wide on the right and stifling Ashley Cole's ability to make forward runs, United held sway.

Ramires, Michael Essien and Frank Lampard needed to dominate but they were unable to command the ball. They were persistently frustrated by the deepest man, Carrick, even before Giggs and Rooney came back as reinforcements to help. Those three were also supplemented by Park Ji-sung, who is such a willing grafter.

Chelsea were pedestrian in approach; Fernando Torres, though initially threatening, became detached from his forward partner Didier Drogba and as a pair they lacked workrate.

Carrick's superb 60-yard pass caught Bosingwa unawares and Giggs stole behind and invited Rooney to score a classic and vital goal. Carrick demonstrated here that he has regained his confidence in a performance of high consistency. By bringing on Nani for Rafael da Silva and with Valencia retreating to right-back, Sir Alex Ferguson showed his confidence, too.

United continued to be more vibrant and pacey. Even though Rooney worked back so diligently he still combined well with Javier Hernández. They appear to have a good chemistry and will get even better together. By contrast it would appear that Torres faces a difficult task to combine with the individualistic Drogba. This is just one of the problems Chelsea have to solve. In this game United's centre-backs, Nemanja Vidic and the returning Rio Ferdinand were well in control of the pair.

Chelsea also needed a wide man, a dribbler, but were narrow and sluggish. Little wonder they struggled.

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Wayne Rooney came into this match with an impending Football Association ban hanging over him and with his every glance at a television camera sure to be scrutinised, though focusing in on the striker must have felt near impossible at times. The forward was a blur of energy, tracking back to hack clear Chelsea attacks, then breaking down field at such pace as to leave his opponents gasping. The hosts had feared he might react like this. "All the controversy might just spur him on a bit," Frank Lampard had said in the build-up. Rooney seemed to relish the abuse here, the goal he side-footed accurately beyond Petr Cech from Ryan Giggs' glorious pull-back his ninth in 14 club games. Once again, revelling his role just off the main striker, he looks the player England hoped they would take to South Africa last summer rather than the snarling bundle of aggression who wilted at the finals.

With David Luiz ineligible it is on occasions such as this that Chelsea miss Alex, absent since the end of last year with a knee complaint, if only because the Brazilian's presence in the centre of defence would allow Branislav Ivanovic to venture out to right-back and help plug a pressure point. José Bosingwa is a Portugal international of pedigree and an attacking threat down the flank but, too often, he is exposed defensively. Given that Ramires, asked to play on the right of midfield, is happier in a central berth and tends to wander infield, Bosingwa can easily become isolated. So Michael Carrick's wonderfully raked pass, gathered by Giggs on the gallop as if this was a throwback to the early 1990s, was always likely to leave the Portuguese floundering. Chelsea never recovered their shape and, within seconds, they had been breached.

This club yearns for Fernando Torres to come good. They dismiss the £50m price tag as irrelevant, keen as they are to remove the burden of expectation the Spaniard carries into every game, yet every scoreless occasion merely chips away at the World Cup winner's confidence. The statistics are damning: this was a 12th scoreless game for club and country, his worst sequence since 2005, and he is now 617 minutes without a goal since moving from Liverpool. There were the same flashes of promise that have flared in most of his games for Chelsea, the odd gliding run, a turn or a shimmy to suggest his quality, and a thumping header that drew the best from Edwin van der Sar. But he remains a shadow of his former self. There were other occasions when he looked lost, stripped of all confidence as if wallowing in the memory of how good he once was.

Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand disapproved of one tumble and confronted him, sandwiching him like bullies in the school playground. He was even booked for diving at the end.

There were some outstanding performances from Manchester United players here – Giggs and Rooney were all industry and effervescence. , and Ferdinand – for a player making his first appearance in two months - was commanding and reassuring. Yet it was Carrick, all calm authority at the base of midfield, who quietly dominated this contest. There had been interceptions, astute tracking back to snuff out Lampard's threat, and even tackles before he made the pass from right to left which found Giggs and sliced Chelsea apart. This felt all rather out of character. Carrick has been prone to drift through games, struggling to impose himself on big occasions, but this was an illustration of the class he can exude. The new contract handed him this season by Sir Alex Ferguson seems astute on this evidence.

Much has been made of Chelsea's near full strength squad, with Yossi Benayoun on the bench here and Alex possibly available for selection again next week. Carlo Ancelotti had made great play of confidence flooding back into his side as players return to fitness and swell his options. Yet a glance down Manchester United's squad list should strike fear into their closest rivals. Antonio Valencia, Ferdinand and Park Ji-sung are back and busy again in this line-up. Nani, scintillating at times this term, and Paul Scholes only made the bench here alongside Dimitar Berbatov, a player who has scored three domestic hat-tricks this season. Therein lies the real depth. Another Treble should not feel outlandish.