They may not have started the season with the swagger of defending champions, but having swept away all before them of late, John O'Shea believes that Manchester United have rediscovered their fear factor and, as such, the utility player senses that opposing teams are once again running scared.
United's 4-2 victory over Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League in Ukraine on Tuesday was the third successive game in which Sir Alex Ferguson's team have found the net four times, and with Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tévez now scaling the heights expected of them, O'Shea is of the opinion that they could take some stopping in their pursuit of yet more silverware.
Such bold declarations will carry greater weight if United beat Arsenal, who are probably in even finer form, at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday week, but it is hard not to have been impressed by the strength in depth of a team operating without many of their first-choice players.
With such a wealth of talent and numbers in their squad, though, United have already demonstrated that they are better equipped to deal with a raft of injuries than last season, when, with a number of key players missing, they tripped in the semi-finals of the Champions League against AC Milan and in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea.
But it is the form of Rooney, Ronaldo, Tévez and Ryan Giggs that had O'Shea purring as he left the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in the Ukrainian capital. Rooney took his goals tally to seven in six matches for club and country against Kiev on the eve of his 22nd birthday, Ronaldo's two goals meant that he has scored six in his past seven starts, while Tévez is starting to show why Ferguson courted the Argentina forward so persistently in the summer.
"It seems that every time we attack, with the pace and power of Wayne, Ronaldo, Tévez and Giggsy, who looked like he was 19 at some stages against Kiev, we can score," O'Shea said. "Training against them gives you a great opportunity to improve your technique because nine times out of ten they're still going past you.
"It's great to be involved in a team that has so much attacking power because you know that, while it was disappointing to have conceded two goals against Kiev, we have been keeping a lot of clean sheets and just know that we are going to score goals.
"You sense that some teams are maybe scared of us. Nights like this one against Kiev make teams aware of what we are capable of.
"When teams come to Old Trafford they like to play five in midfield and try to play for the draw, but with the attack we have they are going to be very wary of just trying to defend against that lot." Such is the potency of United's attack that O'Shea believes his job as a defender or midfield player is made all the easier and thinks the team are starting to reap the benefits of having such a big squad. "It's not a case of feeling unbeatable, but we know that with the players we have, we're going to be creating chances in games," he said.
"There is great strength in depth in this squad and that's a difference between this squad and previous ones. We're getting stretched to the limits at the minute, but we're showing we can more than cope."