One crumbling empire, there's only one crumbling empire.

Sad to report, the Stretford End were not singing that as Manchester United won with embarrassing ease, though they might like to consider it while this sort of champagne football is providing such an attractive counterpoint to the meltdown at Chelsea.

As Sir Alex Ferguson has said on several occasions, talk of the Old Trafford empire crumbling is so last season, like England reaching a World Cup final and Jose Mourinho fancying Andriy Shevchenko. The only thing crumbling here was the Aston Villa defence, though they will not be the only side to struggle to cope with United's attacking options.

'We were two goals behind before we could think,' Martin O'Neill said, despondent at a winless run now stretching to 12 matches. 'We were hoping to stay in the game for longer than that, but United are a fine side at the top of their game and we are not. We let them get in rather easily.'

Ferguson paid tribute to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's finishing and spoke highly of the partnership that the fit-again Louis Saha has forged with Wayne Rooney. Nevertheless, he went with Henrik Larsson, breaker of the deadlock against Villa in the Cup last weekend, and only a fine reaction save from Thomas Sorensen prevented the Swede opening the scoring after four minutes when he got his head to Gary Neville's cross.

That was the first indication the game was not going to be anything like as tight as the Cup tie. The second and third arrived in the 10th and 12th minutes and gave the lie to Ferguson's generous assertion that Villa are a hard-working team who always put up a fight. Neville's next cross led to the first goal, when Gary Cahill's dismal attempt to clear the danger simply invited Park Ji-Sung to score at the second attempt. Two minutes later Sorensen was beaten again from similar distance, when Michael Carrick played a leisurely one-two with Park down the right and strolled into the area unopposed to score his first United goal.

The only danger after that was that United might fall asleep or die of boredom, and they certainly lost concentration on a few occasions before half time. Carrick, Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo were all guilty of dozily surrendering possession to allow Villa to set up counter-attacks, though since the visitors' only attacking idea was to hoof the ball forward for Gabriel Agbonlahor to chase, United did not have that much to worry about. Agbonlahor undoubtedly has pace, but Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are no slouches either and the only time the 20-year-old was granted a clear sight of goal he shot straight at Edwin van der Sar.

This did not exactly amount to encouragement for O'Neill, especially when Gavin McCann completed a lamentable Villa first half by dawdling on the edge of his area and allowing himself to be dispossessed by Park. Carrick took full advantage, pinging a first time cross to the far post that left Ronaldo no choice but to score.

Villa at least gave their impressive fans something to sing about ('We're going to win 4-3') by unexpectedly pulling a goal back at the start of the second half. The infuriatingly inconsistent Milan Baros stopped impersonating the invisible man and briefly showed why Chelsea recently expressed an interest, skinning not just Vidic but also Patrice Evra down the right and crossing along the line to leave Agbonlahor a tap-in.

When Rooney saw a shot saved by Sorensen, the instruction went out for Saha to warm up, though when the substitution was made, it was for Park. Saha was almost on the scoresheet immediately when Neville took advantage of non-existent defending to cross low from the right, but with Sorensen stranded Cahill cleared off the line. If Ferguson is hoping Rooney will play himself back into form he will have been cheered by the terrific shot that slapped against the bar 15 minutes from the end. If Rooney cannot buy a goal at the moment it is not for the want of trying, though he is also trying referees' patience and he was rightly booked for an unnecessary foul on Baros.

So the lead stays at six points, despite Rooney misfiring and Ryan Giggs staying on the bench. 'We have quite a few goalscorers in the ranks at the moment,' explained Ferguson. 'We're just waiting for Gary Neville to join in. There's Paul Scholes as well. He's a marvellous player. Once he gets a bit of composure he'll be all right.'

This is comedy, of course. Probably for Chelsea's benefit. Whatever is going on at Stamford Bridge, Ferguson and his players have never looked more cheerful and relaxed.

Man of the match: Michael Carrick

Scorer of the second goal, provider for the third, and launcher of countless United attacks from what might as well have been an armchair in front of the back four. He's not yet the full Roy Keane, and occasionally lost concentration. But the former Tottenham man is growing ever more assured and confi dent in his role, despite all the talk of Owen Hargreaves' arrival from Bayern Munich, and is beginning to justify his £18m price tag.