Manchester United's seventh championship in nine seasons appears assured

Manchester United's seventh championship in nine seasons appears assured. Eleven points clear, playing a game beyond the comprehension, let alone the aspiration, of most opponents, Sir Alex Ferguson's team have practically secured their first hat-trick of titles. Manchester United's seventh championship in nine seasons appears assured. Eleven points clear, playing a game beyond the comprehension, let alone the aspiration, of most opponents, Sir Alex Ferguson's team have practically secured their first hat-trick of titles. Arsenal's latest lapse palpably sharpened United's appetite to push the target out of the reach of Arsÿne Wenger's perennial chasers, and West Ham, annual cannon fodder here, were ill-equipped to contain that desire.United's first-half play was irresistible and the wonder was that they led by only two goals at the interval.

They had 17 attempts on goal before West Ham had a shot.Ironically, given the fluency and imagination of United's football, their opening goal, scored by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after two minutes, was aided by Rigobert Song's carelessness and the second, half an hour later, was an own goal by Stuart Pearce.The presence of Paolo Di Canio, a player admired by Ferguson, would have enhanced West Ham's prospects However, the Italian was laid low by a cold. "He wasn't well,'' said his manager, Harry Redknapp, with heavy sarcasm "Sometimes he isn't. He didn't play here last year."They were absolutely tremendous in the first half They're way in front of anyone else in the country. When you think they have key players to come back it's frightening. You could put their passing and movement on a coaching video - it's an object lesson. There's not a chance of their losing that lead.''West Ham's Frank Lampard was similarly impressed by the opposition, saying: "Once they went 2-0 up, we knew we were playing for pride.

They were a class apart."Ferguson has grown accustomed to the compliments but the secret of his success is to take nothing for granted. He said: "It's nice for people to say these things but we lost a 12-point lead to Arsenal three years ago and we don't intend to let that happen again It would be embarrassing for us to lose that now The job is to keep focused on every game. We won't take our foot off the pedal, we'll be trying every game and hopefully that will see us through.''Ferguson acknowledged Arsenal's fifth away defeat of the season, at Charlton, earlier in the day, had provided his team with a timely incentive. "You do accept favours like that and it helped us get about our job in a proper way We've had some frights this year.