The Guardian
Honesty is of paramount importance to Roy Keane but on Saturday night the Sunderland manager's customary candour was replaced by rare discretion. Asked about Manchester United's prospects for the season, Sir Alex Ferguson's former captain came over a little coy, ducking a reporter's question. "It's none of my business, really," he replied, and paused before adroitly deflecting any follow-up inquiries with a touch of humour. "United will be fine - they'll be safe."
Serenaded throughout by choruses of "Keano" from both sets of supporters at Old Trafford, he had seen no such need for diplomacy the previous week when, after losing at home to Liverpool, he praised Rafael Benítez's side to the skies, insisting that the Spaniard had produced "the best team to come out of Anfield in years".
For protracted periods Keane's players, arranged in obdurate 4-5-1 mode, looked comfortable if alarmingly unambitious. Edwin van der Sar in United's goal was not required to deal with a single shot on target, and Craig Gordon was rarely called to arms until Louis Saha replaced Anderson at half-time.
A £17m signing from Porto, Anderson appeared lightweight, not only failing to establish any sort of telepathy with Carlos Tevez but persistently permitting Nyron Nosworthy and Danny Higginbotham - impressive on his Sunderland debut at the club where he was a trainee - to steer him down attacking cul-de-sacs.
Operating wide on the left, Nani, a £14m acquisition from Sporting Lisbon, proved little more effective. Granted, the Portuguese's splendidly delivered corner prefaced Saha's glancing near-post scoring header but otherwise Nani found himself largely subdued by Paul McShane.
As Ferguson, sorely missing the injured Wayne Rooney and suspended Cristiano Ronaldo, admitted: "Our first-half passing was far too slow. We lacked weight up front and weren't making many chances. It was a long day."
Making his comeback from an injury sustained in April, Saha provided United with that hitherto absent attacking physicality. The Frenchman not only finally provided Tevez with a much-needed foil to play off but prompted an outstanding save from Gordon after striking a high-velocity volley destined for the bottom corner.
Without Saha's input United might well have drawn and debate as to whether their chances of retaining their title had evaporated would now be raging. Although Keane maintained that it "takes seven or eight weeks for sides to really get up and running", he refrained from tipping his alma mater for glory. Moreover, when asked if opposing teams no longer feared playing at Old Trafford he merely said: "I'm not sure. I can't really comment."
"There are different ways of losing and the way we lost today was not too bad. My players' body language was good; they wanted the ball. The trouble is that, when you have to work so hard to get it, your concentration sometimes goes and you don't use it properly."
With such slapdash delivery not confined to the visitors, the game never lived up to an emotional preamble featuring Keane stepping out of the tunnel to thunderous acclaim before embracing the equally applauded Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has been forced into retirement by knee trouble. Keane had predicted this would not be an occasion for "hugs and kisses" but he made an exception for his former team-mate. "I've been speaking to Ole since he announced his retirement but it was good to see him," he explained. "Ole's a top man." Do not bet against Solskjaer joining Keane's coaching staff.
The Telegraph
It was the homecoming Roy Keane would have wanted. Nothing very extraordinary happened. Afterwards, there would be a glass of wine with his former manager and then a few more with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the man who won Manchester United the European Cup final that Keane had driven them towards with every sinew in his body.
When he returned home, Keane would find sleep easier than he had done after the defeats at Wigan and Luton. His Sunderland side had lost at Old Trafford but Sunderland sides nearly always do lose in this unforgiving corner of Manchester.
In 55 years they have won there just once - in May 1968 when many extraordinary things happened; when Paris almost fell to a student revolution, when Matt Busby's quest for the European Cup was finally fulfilled and when United, requiring the minimum of a home win over Sunderland to retain their title, failed.
Keane reflected that his players had not been "beaten in the tunnel" as so many others have. He would have been gratified they had not been crushed as Derby were at Anfield although, until Louis Saha was introduced, United appeared so tactically confused that Keane would have backed his players to hold out to the finish.
As the evening wore on, it was clear that one side of the scoreline would read nil. The only question was whether Manchester United could break through.
This they did only after Sir Alex Ferguson brought on an out-and-out centre-forward after half-time to support the array of attacking midfielders whom Dwight Yorke and the four defenders behind him had kept at bay without undue effort.
Had Saha been at virtually any other club than United, he would long ago have been discarded; not because of his ability but because he is so rarely fit. Smaller clubs, who look more anxiously at their wage bills, could not have sustained a footballer who cost £12.8 million from Fulham in January 2004 and had started a mere 46 games in 3½ years. The same goes for Solskjaer, who made his affectionate goodbyes before kick-off.
Saha said he had felt "comfortable" operating alongside Carlos Tevez, a player whom Ferguson later admitted was far more incisive playing off a centre-forward than he was leading the line, an argument he had previously dismissed.
However, when Wayne Rooney returns, the same problem will arise for Ferguson once more. He has two outrageous talents who both crave the same position.
Does he sacrifice one or does he try to squeeze them both in? The answer may determine whether United retain their title.
The Times
Roy Keane is nobody's fool. Never was; never will be. He knows from the other side of the equation that it is madness to open up when you are a visiting manager at Old Trafford - and that applies as much to the post-match press conference as to your tactics on the pitch.
What of United, though? Much was made of their failure to win in their first three Premier League matches and, this being United, so, too, will much be made of their failure to perform in winning their past two matches by a solitary goal. On the one hand, they have Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney soon to return; on the other, the early signs are that they should not expect too much too soon from Anderson and Nani, their young summer imports from Portugal, or, perhaps, from Carlos Tévez.
After an encouraging debut away to Portsmouth, the Argentina forward has been notable only for his endeavour in United's past two matches, much as in his early days at West Ham United a year ago. Nani has a match-winning goal to his name, against Tottenham Hotspur eight days ago, but he and Anderson showed none of the prodigious swagger of Ronaldo and Rooney.
There are mitigating circumstances for Anderson, who missed much of last season with a broken leg and had his preseason preparations disrupted by the Copa America and injury, but if Keane were still at United, he might have had a not-so-quiet word with Anderson and Nani to start making headlines on the pitch rather than for their nocturnal activities.
Anderson's impact on his debut was so minimal that he was substituted at half-time - a positive move. His replacement, Louis Saha, gave United a much-needed focal point in attack even before he scored the only goal of the game with 18 minutes remaining.
Sunderland had seemed capable of getting a draw, Nyron Nosworthy and Danny Higginbotham, another United old boy, holding firm, but their resistance was broken when Nani swung a corner towards the near post, where Craig Gordon, who had been impressive, Dickson Etuhu and Darryl Murphy stood as Saha headed in.