Andy Cole claimed a golden brace to put majestic Manchester United on course for their third Double in five seasons.

Despite a frantic Luca Vialli-inspired finale, Ruud Gullit was left wincing at what was surely the most comprehensive defeat of his managerial career.

And the key to it all was the rocket-paced Cole, who destroyed Gullit's men from first minute to last, scaring them rigid every time he latched onto the ball.

It was Cole's persistence and high-intensity acceleration that laid on David Beckham's opener, with the England midfielder taking advantage of an Ed De Goey blunder to put United two clear before the half-hour.

Chelsea's glory run last term had really begun with an amazing comeback against Liverpool, but Cole was not going to allow any repeat as he stepped in to rip the Cup completely from their hands.

Seconds before the break, Ryan Giggs' ball sent the England man racing down the exposed left flank, Cole waiting until exactly the right moment before firing home.

And any possibility of a stunning reversal of fortune was ended by the hitman mid-way through the second half, after Giggs had once more sent him away.

The coollest of finishes was Cole's 17th in his last 16 games, his 19th of the campaign, and ensured United's 48-year unbeaten Cup record against the Blues would continue.

Teddy Sheringham looked to have inflicted the heaviest defeat of Gullit's Stamford Bridge reign when he nodded home.

But, with Vialli off the bench, Graeme le Saux chipped in one before the substitute claimed a late double of his own to bring a flattering gloss to the scoreline.

Even so, it was unquestionably, and outstandingly, United's day. The omens were not good for Chelsea, in their worst form of the season and plunged into dressing room darkness by a pre-game power cut.

On the other hand, they were desperate to retain their hold on the trophy they won last year, and had skipper for the day Mark Hughes putting his own brand of fire in their midfield belly.

But they also faced the teeth of the gale in the first half, and as the elements combined to do their worst, magnificent United were utterly dominant.

Right from the start they were first to every ball, Giggs electric, Cole even quicker, Teddy Sheringham winning every header, Beckham in his element.

After only 10 minutes an anxious Gullit was off his bench, screaming his fury at the way his side were being pulled apart.

Dan Petrescu cleared Ronny Johnsen's floated header off the line in the fourth minute, Sheringham's follow-up scrambled over the bar, and then Giggs and Sheringham combined to set up Cole, Steve Clarke making the half-block that allowed De Goey to save.

But United, a red tide threatening to breach the home flood defences, kept on coming, Cole to the fore.

Nicky Butt should have made the breakthrough, shooting wide after Cole's dummy - and Michael Duberry's clumsy error - had sent him in, and then his crossed flashed just beyond the lunges of Sheringham and Cole.

The opener was inevitable, however, and duly arrived in the 23rd minute. Giggs sent the jet-heeled Cole on his way, and while he might have gone down under Frank Leboeuf's challenge, the striker kept his feet.

Reward followed, as Cole span to centre from the United left, and when Sheringham touched on, the unmarked Beckham sidefooted past a helpless De Goey.

Only right, and United had to wait just five minutes for the second, after Mark Nicholls had joined Hughes and the fit-again Denis Irwin in Steve Lodge's book for a foul on Giggs.

Even with the wind, Beckham's 25-yard right footer round the wall should have been kept out as de Goey moved across, but the Dutchman contrived to help the ball over the line off his post.

Disaster for De Goey, catastrophe for Chelsea, who seemed simply unable to cope, although the goal sparked them into their best spell of the match.

Gianfranco Zola, who had hardly seen the ball beforehand, sent a free-kick just too high before the Sardinian's great ball in from the right somehow eluded everybody.

Petrescu headed over from Graeme Le Saux before Nicholls, fed by the England full-back, forced the first save of the match from the returning Peter Schmeichel.

But still United, so incisive, so threatening, looked equally as likely to score the next, and in injury time Cole's sheer pace did just that.

A Chelsea attack broke up and Giggs sent the £7million man away from just inside his own half.

Leboeuf desperately tried to get back, but never got near, and as De Goey came off his line Cole clipped past him.

Chelsea, famously, had come back from the dead to beat Liverpool in the fourth round last year, but two is not three, and Liverpool are not United.

Gullit tried to change things, sending on Andy Myers for Nicholls, pushing Hughes up front alongside Tore Andre Flo and throwing everything forward.

What they needed - as Hughes had given them 12 months ago - was something early, and it might have come four minutes into the second period.

Duberry, up from the back, unleashed a 25-yarder Schmeichel could not hold, Le Saux's return came back off the bar, and when the loose ball fell to Zola, his fierce strike was parried by United's great Dane.

Tension was rising - Schmeichel of all people taking it upon himself to play Mr Calm after a Hughes challenge on Gary Neville - but Chelsea needed a footballing miracle.

Vialli was the fans' chosen miracle worker, coming on for Flo, but before the Italian could have any influence on proceedings, Cole struck again.

The key to the 65th minute goal was Butt's surperb tackle on Clarke in the centre circle. Chelsea were wrong-footed and Giggs ensured they suffered.

A superb first-time ball sent Cole running free beyond Duberry and into the box before sliding past the keeper.

Now it was becoming a humiliation, Sheringham adding insult to injury by steaming in to head home Beckham's cross with 16 minutes of torture still to go.

Le saux did slightly - very slightly - soften the blow when he took advantage of a Beckham error to clip a drop-shot arcing above Schmeichel and into the net.

"We want two" chanted the good-humoured home fans, a wish granted by Vialli six minutes from time after he was found by Petrescu, although Beckham was only denied a hat-trick by De Goey's flying leap.

A third followed almost instantly, Vialli again the beneficiary - once more from Petrescu - after a foul-up by Gary Pallister.

But it was too little, far too late, a crazy finish to a sensational game.

Chelsea knew that the scoreline flattered them, so outclassed had they been when it mattered. Can anybody stop United?

Teams

Chelsea: De Goey, Petrescu, Clarke, Le Saux, Duberry, Leboeuf, Di Matteo, Nicholls (Myers 45), M. Hughes, Zola, Flo (Vialli 61).

Subs Not Used: Lambourde, P. Hughes, Hitchcock.

Booked: M. Hughes, Nicholls, Di Matteo, Leboeuf, Le Saux.

Goals: Le Saux 78, Vialli 83, 88.

Man Utd: Schmeichel, Neville, Irwin, Johnsen, Pallister, Beckham, Butt, Scholes (Solskjaer 71), Giggs, Sheringham, Cole.

Subs Not Used: McClair, Berg, Clegg, Pilkington.

Booked: Irwin, Scholes, Sheringham.

Goals: Beckham 23, 28, Cole 45, 65, Sheringham 74.

Att: 34,792

Ref: S Lodge (Barnsley).