'Reports of Chelsea's metronomic progress in the title race that is supposed to be over already punctuated United's gadfly destruction of Villa. As the goal flashes from Stamford Bridge came in like the clucking of a displeased schoolmaster, Sir Alex Ferguson's team were so irritating because they were so close to being sublimely good.
So step forward for the cane - or maybe the hairdryer - Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
At times both of them made the difference in class look so wide we might have been back in Exeter, where in midweek they surely broke the world record in wasted opportunities. Here, though, it was ultimately the same story. The sheer law of averages prevailed, at least on this particular scoreline. What they could not do, though, was cast any real light on that popular theory that Jose Mourinho's shock force have cornered the Premiership prize at unprecedented speed.
If Mourinho's suggestion that the title is already Chelsea's can be disputed in terms of simple logic, there was nothing in the spasmodic bouts of brilliance from the profligate boys to weaken his case this day. While Chelsea picked apart the football department store otherwise known as Portsmouth, United spent most of the afternoon throwing away the chance to bury often feeble opposition.
It was this that most worked against any belief that United, despite a build-up of impressive statistics, can capture the game-in, game-out consistency which is so implicit in all of Chelsea's work.
In the past United have worn down the likes of Newcastle and Arsenal with the sheer volume of their self-belief, but against Villa there was rarely a hint of such massive conviction.
Some say this week's Carling Cup semi-final second leg will give United the chance to inflict the kind of psychological damage on Chelsea they imprinted all over Arsenal last October when they ended the Highbury club's unbeaten run, but if you believe this you will also buy the idea that Mourinho sometimes walks into a room without quite knowing what to say.
Chelsea and United are in sharply different places not because of random moments of strength or weakness but because one of the teams has struck a wonderful and currently unbreakable rhythm. If United are to challenge the status quo - and with Rio Ferdinand back in the team, Ruud van Nistelrooy due next month, and the force of history, they have reasons enough to believe it might just happen - they have to expel all the looseness which marked this latest performance.'