Sir Alex Ferguson accepted that winning the title was out of Manchester United's hands after last week's defeat by Middlesbrough, but he has not given it up and he sounded more bullish when sending his players into one of their season's most keenly anticipated fixtures.
'We still have a chance, but we need to win all our games,' Ferguson said. 'I believe Arsenal and Liverpool will drop points before the end of the season, whereas we know we cannot afford to.'
Even with Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench, the champions were never in danger of losing points here, although they did make Ferguson sweat a little by carelessly letting Leeds United come back from 4-1 down. Ferguson's side have consistently looked better this season with Paul Scholes in midfield, and by half-time the England man had engineered a three-goal platform for victory.
Getting his excuses in early, David O'Leary claimed he never expected Leeds to finish in the top three because United, Arsenal and Liverpool have been building their squads for longer and have more experienced players. The point about experience is a fair one. United must have at least half a dozen players capable of winning a game, so even if two or three have an off day there is always someone else able to take the initiative.
O'Leary felt Roy Keane would be the decisive influence, but the Irishman played well within himself. So did David Beckham, who stationed himself much deeper than usual and was anonymous for much of the game. So with Juan Veron rather conveniently absent through injury, Scholes returned after missing the England game last Wednesday to show the watching Sven-Göran Eriksson what he does best.
Scholes scored the first goal and set up the next two, which was good news for the England coach since otherwise the most impressive English player on show would have been Jonathan Woodgate. It was certainly not Danny Mills, whose afternoon varied between the gung-ho and the gormless.
O'Leary did not name Mills, but he admitted the absence of Rio Ferdinand was crucial and made it clear he was not happy with the standard of defending. 'A few of us at the back played very poorly today,' the Leeds manager said. 'If you break the goals down on video each one was shocking defending. We will always score goals, but you can't expect to win big games if you gift three or four to your opponents.'
All true, but O'Leary's analysis does not give those opponents the credit they deserve, especially Scholes. He finished a move he helped to create to score the first goal, popping up in the penalty area to take a return pass from Mikael Silvestre.
Mark Viduka took advantage of Gary Neville's slip to equalise after Laurent Blanc stood off Lee Bowyer for too long, but two poacher's goals in two minutes from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer appeared to have ended the contest by the interval. Nigel Martyn could not hold Scholes's shot after Mills had crashed into Woodgate, and Solskjaer effortlessly snaffled the rebound. Then, when Scholes sent Silvestre past Mills to the byline once again, the Norwegian turned in the cross with the aid of a deflection off Dominic Matteo.
When Beckham ran the length of the pitch without meeting a challenge in the 55th minute, turning a tackle by Blanc on the edge of his own area into an invitation for Ryan Giggs to sidefoot in a fourth, Leeds looked dead and should have been buried.
They might have been had not Ronny Johnsen's header come back off the bar three minutes later but, to their credit, Leeds kept going forward and created enough chances to at least draw. Ian Harte started the recovery, crashing in a free-kick from 25 yards, then Leeds were transformed by the introduction of the lively Robbie Keane. The substitute laid on a third goal for Bowyer via Robbie Fowler with a determined run and cross 10 minutes from the end, but could have done with coming up with a more clinical finish when Eirik Bakke's cross gave him a free header.
Harte had another free-kick from closer range before the end, but missed the target by inches, with Barthez a stationary spectator.
United may still be in the title hunt, but they will have to improve on this in Europe. 'I was never worried,' Ferguson said with bravado. His captain was more honest. 'We should have killed them off,' Keane said. 'I was a bit worried when Harty got that second free-kick, because I know what he can do.'
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