How Gordon Brown must wish that he could call upon Wayne Rooney. Instead, he’s had to make do with quantitative easing and Peter Mandelson - far less entertaining and far less adept at obscuring the truism that skint is skint is skint.

But there’s a limit even to Rooney’s talents. Ten days ago, the worry was that a couple of good results might cause the resistance to lose focus, but it’s now clear that the situation has escalated beyond that. Even though the second half at Arsenal was punctuated by loud anti-Glazer sentiment, if that doesn’t translate to direct action - the only way of banishing them from our club - they’ll continue laughing at us for evermore.

More interviews like the one given by David Gill last Sunday lunchtime won’t do any harm, deceitfully spluttering his passive-aggressive way through a spot on BBC Radio 5 live. Despite questions less penetrating than a castrated fly, when not resorting to desperate escapes like “you’ll have to ask the owners” - well we would if they could or would speak to us - and infantile retorts like “but you’re not an accountant are you” - no, but we can count - he was demeaning us with a condescension that must be the only way of hiding his very palpable guilt.

After once promising to be “behind the barricades” should the Glazer takeover succeed, the sorry lump of money-love was good enough to let us know that the demonstration planned for the Milan home game is “ridiculous”. Though perhaps the biggest insult was referring to United as a “family club”. Family’s club maybe, but family club? In the words of the late, great MC Ruff, “officer me lord, you must be mad”.

But let’s humour him and run with it anyway. The roles of rich, senile old man and gormless uncles are taken, and Gill is perfect as the interloper who’s not actually a relation but manages to insinuate himself into the will nonetheless. And if Fergie’s the ageing patriarch who’s wronged and righted everyone in his time, and the players the hired help, that only leaves the supporters; bastard offspring who embarrass everyone, refusing to take the hint and keep quiet.

Anyway, to the relieving balm of the football. The famously lucid Paul Merson declared pre-match that “Arsenal could run riot”, while Wenger commented that “we look always forward to it”. Well perhaps they any more won’t, after another demoralising hiding.

At least that’s what it seemed like, based on the bits that I could see. No more than Arsenal and their plastic Hornbyites deserve - the Emirates is easily the worst of the new grounds, locating supporters as far from the pitch as possible, despite the promises made when work began at the new site. Fine, there are unobstructed sightlines, but you can get those on the telly; people go to games to be involved in the action, not to talk amongst themselves while it takes place somewhere in the distance.

No sooner had ‘The Wonder of You’ finished - about as congruous at the football as a fluorescent pink combine harvester embroidered with ermine - than United took over. Dominating possession and territory, they spent the first 20 minutes trying to break Arsenal down, Arsenal trying simply to break. Even though Arshavin had two half-chances in that period it would have been hard to worry had he scored, United’s superiority such that they looked good for at least a couple of goals, as indeed they were.

The game’s outstanding player in the first half was Nani, three consecutive performances of excellence illustrating what can be achieved via the complex strategy of picking a player consistently and in his position. After two years of mediocrity, my dad speculated hopefully that perhaps he’d come from a job interview when we saw him in a suit at Stamford Bridge, and the majority of others, myself included, would have also rejoiced in his sale.

However this was more an issue of personality than ability, his performances hampered by selfish, brainless indulgence on the ball and a demeanour of indignant entitlement off it. Now, in the opinion of no less a luminary than Micky Phelan, he looks like he might develop into “a United player”, which it’s nice to see he realises is about more than being picked to wear a United shirt. If he could just sort out his cheating and his hair, who knows - maybe one day he’ll be a Red.

Given that so far this season, United have managed only a single league goal from over two hundred corners, the ability to score from the opposition’s is very handy. It’s always pleasing to see Arsenal in particular undone on the counter-attack, a tactic some seem to think was patented by Wenger, rather than pioneered by Fergie.

Also worthy of note was its employment in the beating of a decent outfit, something Arsenal, for all their aesthetic demolitions of Charlton and West Ham, have rarely done. Nor can I remember a Wenger team so devoid of power and pace. For all the players with nice first touches, there was no one likely to beat a full back on the outside, placing almost all the creative responsibility on Fabregas - a brilliant footballer, but one United have learnt how to exclude from games between the sides.

Instrumental in doing so this time was what we hope is now a settled midfield, that simple fact of greater importance than the personnel comprising it. Anderson’s recent sulk means that Fletcher will be joined by either or both of Carrick and Scholes, the latter’s passing deployed higher up the pitch at long last, where he remains perhaps the league’s most intuitive unpicker of defences.

Of course it also helps if you have Wayne Rooney, devastating when given proper support. As well as his obvious technical skill, he has a natural stamina that enables him to retain his top speed for longer than others, and married to a brain that sends him in the right direction, he’s incredibly difficult to pick up. Long may he stroke his zits in triumphant post-match interviews.

But none of the above is to say the performance was perfect; United relaxed after the third goal when they should have been punishing Arsenal with four, five and six, though maybe they were under instructions not to decimate their confidence completely, as it’d be useful if they took points off Chelsea on Sunday.