If Wolves can no longer be punished by the league for making 10 changes and fielding a toothless team at Old Trafford, they must surely have fallen foul of the Trades Description Act by continuing to wear a logo depicting a wild animal. Certainly Manchester United will never find a tamer way of catching Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table.
The stylish way would have been by beating Aston Villa on Saturday, so that this victory would have taken them three points clear, but after the startling events of four days ago – when United were beaten 1-0 by Martin O'Neill's men on their own turf – this was a soporific stroll. While Sir Alex Ferguson will have no grumbles about three easy points, complaints about the Wolves line-up and attitude to the game may be remembered for quite a while longer.
Mick McCarthy sprang a big surprise with his team selection: 10 of them, in fact, as every outfield player from Saturday's notable win at Spurs was rested. In the old days, before anyone had heard of Champions League squads or rotation, teams used to get into trouble for doing that.
Now Wolves can offer the defence that sides at the top of the table regularly make wholesale changes and, presumably argue, that Burnley at home this weekend is a more winnable fixture.
Even so, at least some of the travelling supporters must have thought they were coming to watch the league's most in-form away side and harbouring hopes of an unlikely double, while any neutrals permitting themselves to dream that United might be hit by a Midlands double whammy will have been similarly disappointed.
The home side themselves were not at full strength, with Michael Carrick again deployed as a centre half beside Nemanja Vidic and Ritchie de Laet preferred to Darren Fletcher at right-back. United still did most of the early attacking, with Wayne Rooney bringing two saves from the Wolves goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann in the first 15 minutes, although Wolves' biggest scare came between them when Stefan Maierhofer almost turned Darron Gibson's cross over his own line.
United kept pressing for an opening goal to settle the game down, with Rooney shooting narrowly wide and Vidic blazing over the bar from a corner, and when even Wolves reserves began causing them problems in defence, it was easy to see why. First a long throw from Greg Halford found United defenders looking at each other and left George Friend with a close-range opportunity he really should have accepted, then the United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak came for Andrew Surman's floated free kick and dropped it under pressure from Maierhofer.
Just as McCarthy must have been feeling his inexperienced players were managing to hold their own, Wolves lack of maturity found them out and allowed United the easiest of escapes. Ronald Zubar was under no particular pressure when Gibson sent over a corner from the right, yet he inexplicably raised an arm and handled. The referee spotted the offence and Rooney scored his 13th goal of the season with an emphatically struck penalty.
Wolves were always going to find it hard to come back after that and the prospect became even more unlikely when United scored a second from a corner just before the interval. Again Gibson took it, and this time Vidic met the ball with his usual power from close to the penalty spot. Hahnemann reacted quickly enough to get his hands to the ball but the header was so forceful it squirmed out of his grasp and over the line.
The second half was predictably low key, enlivened only by ironic chants of "we want our money back" from the visiting fans, and what was shaping up to be an entertaining feud between Maierhofer and Vidic until McCarthy brought it to a close by withdrawing his striker. Vidic himself lasted only a few minutes longer before heading for the dressing room, leaving United with a back-line featuring Carrick and Fletcher. The later went to right-back with De Laet then moving inside to centre half.
United made it comfortable after 66 minutes, when Antonio Valencia finished neatly from Dimitar Berbatov's overhead flick, though in truth, against a weakened team, the home attack looked only slightly sharper that they had against Villa.
Here was an opportunity for Rooney to fill his boots, or for Berbatov to play himself back into form and confidence, yet when the former made way for Michael Owen near the end he had barely added anything to his penalty, and Berbatov's assist proved to be his only telling contribution.
The Wolves fans were still singing at the end and seem to have taken this apparent slap in the face in good heart – their chants seemed to suggest it was United who were not worth the admission money – though smiles may quickly turn to snarls at Molineux should things go awry against Burnley on Sunday.
