Timing is all. At the moment when, stung by what was wrongly perceived to be a harsh penalty call, the travelling Tottenham Hotspur contingent chose to voice their displeasure with a taunt of “that’s why you’re champions”, Nani unleashed a shot that defied all obstacles, including terrace sarcasm. No, that’s why we’re champions, it seemed to say.

From a distance of 30 yards, the ball dipped and clipped the top of Carlos Tévez’s head, eluding Paul Robinson, the goalkeeper, who, Steve McClaren, the England head coach, will ruefully note, is having one of those weeks. Beaten last Wednesday by a Germany striker whose alter ego is a rapper called Funky Pee, his tormentor on this occasion celebrated his goal with a series of somersaults and back-flips. It is as if the circus has come to town, and is camped on his lawn, mocking him through the windows.

Robinson was not the only visitor feeling cursed by events at Old Trafford. The majority of Tottenham’s players, plus Martin Jol, the manager, were convinced that Tottenham had two second-half penalty appeals falsely rejected by Howard Webb, the referee, although further investigation suggested that the policeman from Yorkshire had actually played a blinder.

Dimitar Berbatov and Nemanja Vidic looked to have collided accidentally in the 63rd minute, when the ball ran loose and was eventually cleared off the line by Rio Ferdinand. Then, two minutes later, when Berbatov was through again, his shot was charged down by Wes Brown using his chest - not, as a crowd of furious Tottenham players claimed, an arm. There was no placating Jol, even after the game, and it will be scant consolation to acknowledge that while his team were not robbed in moral terms, on balance of play they might have been.

Tottenham had the best chances and many of the finest individual performances, not least an excellent debut for Gareth Bale, whose hard running drew two yellow cards for foul challenges by Ryan Giggs and Brown. Carry on like this and they will win more than they lose, although that alone will not be enough to save Jol, with the growing desperation for Champions League football making irrational hotheads of the men in charge at White Hart Lane.

Having said that, they justifiably want a manager capable of going to Old Trafford and winning: in his past five meetings with Manchester United, Jol has suffered four defeats and a draw. Indeed, in 21 matches against the top-four clubs since August 2005, Tottenham have won once. It cannot all be bad luck.

Sir Alex Ferguson was frank enough to admit that the teams were not separated by much yesterday, but there is no doubt that now is the time to play the champions, with Wayne Rooney and Louis Saha injured, and Cristiano Ronaldo suspended. Familiar problems pervade. United have forwards, but no goalscorer.

Everybody is happiest playing in the hole, so it is no surprise that at times it more resembles a crater and the front line disappears into it. That is what happened for long periods here. Tévez worked hard but to little end and there was something approaching anxiety about Ferguson’s attempt to credit him with Nani’s goal, too keen by half to see his big summer signing get off the mark.

Few of United’s chances were clearly defined: Ryan Giggs, Ferdinand and Michael Carrick foiled comfortably by Robinson, a chip by Paul Scholes that looped over the bar. Only in the 66th minute, when Robinson unconvincingly punched out another shot by Nani, straight to Tévez, whose return was cleared off the line by Jermaine Jenas, were United harshly denied. From the next attack, however, they scored and after that Tottenham’s resistance was lost in a fog of deluded injustice.

Instead of chasing phantom handballs, it would have been more helpful had Tottenham taken their chances, particularly from set-pieces, when United were vulnerable. With expert delivery from Bale and Jenas, Tottenham posed their greatest threat in the air and Pascal Chimbonda and Ricardo Rocha were unfortunate with headers steered just wide.

Robbie Keane hit the bar with a chip after just 19 seconds - the highlight of his afternoon, sadly - and Berbatov had a shot go over after 78 minutes, but it was possession as much as pressure that defined the promise of this display.

Tottenham lack presence in mid-field. Jenas maintained his fine form against Derby County last week, but Tom Huddlestone often fades from the game and turned as ponderously as an ocean liner when trying to close down Nani for the goal. To the surprise of nobody, Steed Malbranque, so decisive against weak opposition at White Hart Lane eight days previously, was anonymous at Old Trafford, his threat extinguished by the excellent Brown.

In between trading knowing barbs with his board of directors - supposedly out in Seville to assess the model of a club with an identical structure to Tottenham - Jol was still smarting over Brown’s more controversial intervention. “He is not a goalkeeper, yet he used everything to keep the ball out of the net,” he said. A pity the man between Tottenham’s posts did not.

Two can play that sarcasm game.

How they rated

Manchester United 1 Nani 68

4-4-1-1 E van der Sar 6 W Brown Y 8 R Ferdinand 5 N Vidic 5 P Evra 6 R Giggs Y 6 O Hargreaves 7 M Carrick 5 Nani 7 P Scholes 5 C Tévez 6 Substitutes C Eagles (for Carrick, 56min, 5), D Fletcher (for Tévez, 77) Not used: Dong Fangzhuo, J O’Shea, T Kuszczak Next: Sunderland (h)

Tottenham Hotspur 0

4-4-2 P Robinson 6 P Chimbonda 7 R Rocha 6 A Gardner Y 7 Lee Young Pyo 7 S Malbranque 5 J Jenas 7 T Huddlestone Y 6 G Bale 7 D Berbatov Y 6 R Keane 5 Substitutes A Taarabt (for Lee, 75), J Defoe (for Keane, 75), D Zokora (for Rocha, 82)

Not used P Stalteri, R Cerny

Next: Fulham (a)

Referee H Webb

Attendance 75,696

Rooney back early

Wayne Rooney expects to be back in action next month after making rapid progress in his recovery from a hairline fracture of the foot. The Manchester United forward initially feared he could be out for eight weeks after sustaining the injury against Reading on August 12, but he is on course to return within four weeks, a considerable boost to United and to England in advance of the European Championship qualifying matches against Estonia and Russia in October. Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, revealed that the club’s sports science department are analysing Rooney’s physique and his running style in the hope of avoiding such injuries in the future.