On the day that his three fellow strikers were suffering from various degrees of injury, Wayne Rooney turned in what was probably his worst performance since joining Manchester United in the summer.
Rooney's perplexing indifference did not, however, prevent Sir Alex Ferguson's men from notching their most emphatic Premiership victory of the season as those behind him – Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Roy Keane – rose admirably to the task. The onus will fall heavily on England's most talented teenager over the festive period as he leads United's attack in the absence of their Dutch master Ruud van Nistelrooy who, as Ferguson feared, has been ordered into a lengthy spell of rest on a niggling Achilles tendon problem.
All the more reason for Rooney to endorse his enormous transfer fee in what looked one of the home banker fixtures of the season against Iain Dowie's brave but limited Crystal Palace side.
The platform was set for Rooney to take charge as early as the eighth minute when Danny Granville, once of Manchester City, unwisely left a leg in front of Darren Fletcher for the Scotland midfielder to "win" a penalty.
That put Rooney on the spot, but Gabor Kiraly was more than a match in the Palace goal, diving to his right to make a much more comfortable save than he could have envisaged and put doubts into the mind of Rooney, who then laboured unimpressively through the eventful 82 minutes that followed.
Giggs claimed the man of the match honours for his latest display of exhilarating attacking inventiveness, but Scholes, scorer of two of his team's five goals, and ever-inspirational captain Keane ran him close with their own terrific contributions.'