David Beckham's first half strike was sufficient to keep Manchester United's
Barclaycard Premiership title hopes alive as they extended their unbeaten league
sequence to 10 games.
The England skipper settled the issue with his seventh goal of the campaign to
keep the pressure on leaders Arsenal.
United were not at their most fluent at a windswept Villa Park but they
deserved their success and have collected 26 points out of a possible 30.
The efforts of Nicky Butt - who shook off an ankle injury to play - and Paul
Scholes gave the Red Devils the edge in the centre of the park.
Beckham should have scored a hat-trick in the opening 20 minutes and after the
break Sir Alex Ferguson's side were in almost total command of proceedings when
only poor finishing kept Villa in the hunt.
At least the home side can point to an improvement on their performance in the
second city derby with Birmingham, with Gareth Barry again their star player
while Mustapha Hadji also impressed on the flank.
But there was a predictability about much of Villa's build-up play and when
Graham Taylor's side did find a way through they were foiled by a solid
performance from Fabien Barthez.
They have now lost four successive Premiership games and are still not
completely clear of the relegation zone.
United were soon into their stride and it needed a fine tackle from left-back
Alan Wright to deny 29-goal Ruud van Nistelrooy after he had neatly controlled a
pass from Paul Scholes on his chest.
Then Villa keeper Stefan Postma - who replaced the axed Peter Enckelman -
pulled off a superb save to deny Beckham from point blank range after he had
side-footed a low cross from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
For Villa the recalled Hadji was also only inches wide with a volley across
the face of goal after Dion Dublin had challenged Mikael Silvestre for a Barry
centre.
Van Nistelrooy did have the ball in the net after nine minutes only for the
Dutch ace to have it ruled out for offside.
But two minutes later Beckham atoned for his earlier miss to put United ahead.
Scholes played the ball into Ryan Giggs and his left-footed chip found Beckham
who eluded Wright to make no mistake at the far post.
Wright became the first player to be yellow-carded after a late challenge on
Scholes in the centre circle.
Dublin seriously threatened for the first time when he sent a header only a
foot wide from near the penalty spot after meeting a cross by Barry.
But Beckham should have doubled United's lead when he met a cross from John
O'Shea at the far post only to fail to control and allow a relieved Wright to
intercept.
Villa had their best chance of the first half after 23 minutes when the
impressive Barry freed Darius Vassell who found himself with a clear run on
goal.
But Barthez was equal to the low drive from the England striker and turned it
around the post with his right hand.
Hadji was doing his best to try and haul Villa back into contention and he was
only inches off target with a 30-yard effort and then sent a powerful header
just over the bar from another Barry cross.
United still looked menacing and Solskjaer side-footed his shot over the bar
after meeting a low cross from van Nistelrooy.
Villa began the second half positively and Barthez turned a header from Dublin
around the post and tipped over a fierce drive from Wright.
But it needed a block by Jlloyd Samuel to deny van Nistelrooy his 30th goal of
the season after he had connected with a low centre from Giggs.
Then the woodwork came to Villa's rescue with Postma beaten by a curling
free-kick from Giggs which thundered against the crossbar.
Solskjaer and van Nistelrooy failed to hit the target when well placed and
then Hadji cleared a header from John O'Shea off the line.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook