Graphic: Tactical analysis by Bill Edgar

If there was a sharp intake of breath around Manchester United’s training ground on Friday, when Wayne Rooney twisted his right ankle during a game of head tennis, it cannot have taken long for a sense of calm to be restored. A quick look around the United dressing-room would indicate that it will take more than a twisted ankle to throw their title challenge off course and, by the time Cristiano Ronaldo had scored twice in as many minutes at Old Trafford yesterday, they were coasting back to the top of the Premier League.

This was not a vintage performance from United or their No 7, but it was another of those afternoons on which their credentials were underscored in bold. In beating an obdurate and talented Blackburn Rovers side, they succeeded where Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool had failed, but there is nothing more impressive about United than the outstanding individual ability that abounds in their ranks and the devastating football that they can produce. For all the recent eulogies to Arsenal, there remain few more thrilling sights in English football than United in full flow, even without Rooney.

It is a credit to Blackburn and their manager, Mark Hughes, that United rarely hit such heights yesterday, but by the time the visiting team had David Dunn sent off early in the second half, the champions were already leading 2-0. Two goals in the space of 96 seconds from Ronaldo had done the trick and the second of them was a minor classic, the ball switched at pace from Louis Saha to Carlos Tévez to Ronaldo and dispatched into Brad Friedel’s net before the Blackburn defence could react to what might have been a harmless mistake by Brett Emerton.

“United are a very good team,” Hughes, the former Old Trafford hero, said afterwards. “What they have got is pace in all areas. Whoever plays, they have pace and power, allied to outstanding skill, which makes them a very difficult proposition to face. They are the current champions and they will go close again, I’m sure about that.”

The frustration for Hughes was that his team had lost a game in which they started so promisingly. Some teams freeze at Old Trafford or, as with Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday, succumb to death by misadventure. Blackburn, though, exuded the belief that they could win here as they did two seasons ago, making a bright start in which David Bentley had a couple of brief sights of goal and Christopher Samba struck the top of the post from 25 yards after Ronaldo was caught dallying on the ball by Dunn.

It was a strange performance from Ronaldo, who three times committed the sin of losing the ball close to his own penalty area. There are times, far more than last season, in fact, when he is guilty of self-indulgence, but then, suddenly, just when frustration seems to be get the better of him, the 22-year-old — yes, 22 — takes it out on the opposition, scoring two goals to transform a difficult game.

The first, in the 33rd minute, offered a reminder that he possesses a prodigious leap — Sir Alex Ferguson called it “absolutely fantastic” — on top of his more lauded ability with the ball at his feet. Ryan Giggs lofted a corner kick into the penalty area, Aaron Mokoena stood still, but Ronaldo leapt decisively to send a header into the roof of the net.

Two minutes later, Ronaldo was celebrating again, although this goal had less to do with his quality than with the devastating speed that United possess on the counter-attack. Emerton was at fault because he misjudged his attempt to deal with Nemanja Vidic’s clearance, but the Australian could not have imagined that the ball would be switched so quickly from Saha to Tévez, whose cross, with the outside of his foot, left Ronaldo with the straightforward task of beating Friedel.

If those two goals did not quite kill off Blackburn’s hopes, Dunn’s sending-off eight minutes into the second half certainly did. Booked on the half-hour for tugging back Tévez, the midfield player was guilty of a clumsy challenge on Saha. Dunn and Hughes seemed incredulous that two such trivial fouls should amount to a red card, particularly given that neither was in a dangerous position on the pitch.

“I’m sure the referee will say that by the letter of the law it was a sending-off, but we were a bit disappointed with the first booking,” Hughes said. “I’m sure the whole crowd were looking forward to a really competitive second half, but unfortunately when the referee deemed that to be a second bookable offence, it killed the game.”

As frustration set in, Blackburn picked up three more yellow cards, two of them for cynical fouls on Giggs. The United veteran turns 34 this month, but, as he rolled back the years with a couple of slalom runs, it was tempting to wonder whether Ferguson had done him a disservice in suggesting that he and Paul Scholes could keep playing until they are 36.

In the case of the latter, unavailable until January with a knee injury, the only worrying aspect is the form of Anderson, the young Brazilian, whose combination of intelligence, upper-body strength and brilliant technique have made light of Scholes’s absence over the past three weeks.

Scholes, Rooney, Gary Neville — it is a casualty list that would add up to a crisis at some clubs, but not at United. No Rooney? No problem.

How they rated

MANCHESTER UNITED

4-2-4
E van der Sar 5 W Brown 7 R Ferdinand 7 N Vidic 6 P Evra 7 O Hargreaves 7 Anderson 8 C Ronaldo Y 8 C Tévez 7 L Saha 5 R Giggs 7

Substitutes Nani 6 (for Saha, 68min), M Carrick (for Hargreaves, 77)
Not used T Kuszczak, J O’Shea, D Fletcher

BLACKBURN

4-4-2
B Friedel 7 B Emerton 6 C Samba Y 7 R Nelsen Y 7 S Warnock 7 D Bentley 7 A Mokoena Y 6 D Dunn R 6 M G Pedersen 4 B McCarthy 4 R Santa Cruz 5

Substitutes M Derbyshire (for Santa Cruz, 78)
Not used J Brown, A Ooijer, Tugay Kerimoglu, B Berner

Referee C Foy
Attendance 75,710