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.

There are many managers who would be happy to offer their views on Manchester United and then there are others, such as Keane, who feel that it is not their place. Perhaps he would have been more obliging had his former team played well, but he is not the type to offer platitudes for the sake of it, let alone to criticise. “It’s none of my business,” was about as much as the Sunderland manager would say about United, stopping only to add, with a cheeky smile: “They’ll be fine. They’ll be safe.”

United will be more than safe – as, on this evidence, should Sunderland, even if a run of four consecutive defeats leaves Keane facing a different challenge after making a supreme start to his managerial career last season in the Coca-Cola Championship. He said that Sunderland, too, would be fine, which is the kind of adjective he did not use too often in his days as a fiercely uncompromising captain at United, but he has been required to set his sights, if not his standards, lower.

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.

It was Saha’s first league goal in almost nine months, a period during which his fitness problems have tested the patience of Ferguson. “It was difficult time and I’ve had a lot of criticism,” the forward said. “People ask me why I get injured so much. It’s not because I want to be injured. It’s because I’m so committed. Like all United players, I play at 100 per cent.”

Keane, naturally, was asked for his thoughts on this. “None of my business,” he said again. End of press conference.

How they rated

Manchester United 1 Saha 72

4-2-3-1 E van der Sar 5 W Brown 6 R Ferdinand 7 N Vidic Y 7 P Evra 6 O Hargreaves 7 P Scholes 6 C Eagles 4 Anderson 4 Nani 5 C Tévez 5 Substitutes L Saha 7 (for Anderson, 46min), D Fletcher 6 (for Eagles, 66), J O’Shea (for Nani, 84) Not used T Kuszczak, M Carrick

Sunderland 0

4-1-4-1 C Gordon 7 P McShane 6 N Nosworthy 8 D Higginbotham 8 D Collins 6 D Yorke 7 M Chopra Y 6 D Etuhu 7 G Leadbitter Y 6 R Wallace 6 K Jones 5 Substitutes D Murphy 6 (for Jones, 70), L Miller (for Etuhu, 82), A Stokes (for Wallace, 82) Not used D Ward, M Kay

Referee M Atkinson

Attendance 75,648 |