Amid the news of David Beckham's injury, it was easy to overlook the fact Old Trafford had witnessed something of a second coming, namely the re-emergence of Juan Sebastian Veron.

Asked before this match to dissect Veron's inconsistent, often fitful, first season in English football, Sir Alex Ferguson had stiffened in his chair and fixed his inquisitors with one of his most impenetrable stares. There had been a media agenda since England were drawn against Argentina in the World Cup, he complained. It was a witch-hunt. "It's sad, very sad."

It was an oblique theory, laced with palpable traces of paranoia. A vociferous protector of his players, Ferguson was never likely to join in the disparagement of Veron, but the notion that the Argentinian was being persecuted by a xenophobic media seemed, even by his standards, to be loyalty bordering on myopia.

Perhaps it was simply more of Ferguson's mind games. With Roy Keane and Paul Scholes both conspicuous absentees, followed by Beckham's harrowing departure midway through the first half, Veron's importance to a makeshift side was elevated to a new tier last night. Old Trafford was entitled to feel a sense of apprehension but, by the close of play, not even his most vehement critic could argue he had failed to make a telling contribution.

Depicted as a £28.1m white elephant, Veron played as if buoyed by the manager's declarations of faith until a recurrence of his achilles injury forced him off with quarter of an hour to go. It was his free-kick that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stabbed in for the opening goal and, just as Deportivo were threatening to take control in the second half, his vision created the Norwegian's second. When he teed up Ryan Giggs for the third it was a hat-trick of assists. "He was marvellous," reflected Ferguson.

Statistics can be manipulated accordingly and much has been made of the fact that United have won 11 of their 12 matches in which Veron has been absent this season and only 13 of the 24 he has played. Most of those non-appearances, however, have come in the second half of the season, and United's resurgence in that time owes more to Laurent Blanc's acclimatisation to life in the Premiership rush-hour, combined with the return to form of Fabien Barthez and David Beckham, than Veron's absence.

Privately, Ferguson must feel an element of frustration that Veron has been unable to replicate this form on a more frequent basis. The fact of the matter is that, scrutinising his season, it is possible to pick out only two sections of play before last night in which he has lived up to his billing as Britain's most expensive footballer. He was imperious in the first 45 minutes of the 4-1 defeat of Everton in September and likewise in the second half of the 5-3 win at Spurs later that month.

Since then, he had decorated the midfield rather than dominate it, a fact that had caused a growing swell of resentment among the club's supporters, exacerbated by his frequently regurgitated claims to the Italian media that he pines a return to Lazio.

"Don't you increasingly get the feeling Veron will go down in United history as a one-season wonder, who wasn't actually that wonderful?" ponders the Red Issue fanzine. "There was never a proper role for him in our team and his style could never be adapted to the Premier League, however hard he has undoubtedly tried."

No one, however, can say Veron's wonderful passing range has ever been in dispute. Sven-Goran Eriksson, watching from the South Stand, along with the Bayer Leverkusen coach Klaus Toppmoller, will certainly have noted how the Argentina international dis sected the entire Deportivo defence with a sumptuous through ball for Ruud van Nistelrooy on 13 minutes.

It was the sort of ball that makes Veron, with the possible exception of Dennis Bergkamp, the best passer in the Premiership. The only other person to rival him at Old Trafford is Beckham, making Veron's role between now and the end of the season all the more crucial.

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