The good news for the other Barclays Premier League clubs is that Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves are injured and Cristiano Ronaldo has yet to find his best form. The bad news is that Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov are starting to hit the high notes, Darren Fletcher and Anderson are no mugs in central midfield, Ryan Giggs continues to defy the years, Rio Ferdinand appears to be impregnable at the back and Ronaldo will start destroying the opposition, as he did so often last season, soon.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, suggested that it may be November before his team “really get going”, although if that is the case, West Bromwich Albion, Celtic, Everton and West Ham United should count themselves fortunate that they are playing the English and European champions this month.

It has been a slow start to the season for United, but after four successive wins in all competitions, they remain the team to beat. Paul Ince, the Blackburn Rovers manager, could point to Steve Bennett’s failure to award a foul on Jason Brown by Nemanja Vidic that allowed United their opening goal, but a correct decision from the referee would merely have postponed the inevitable.

United had taken six points from 21 on their seven previous league visits to Ewood Park, but on Saturday the three points were only ever going to go to one team, and they did not play in blue and white. This was about as comprehensive as 2-0 wins get.

Ince suggested that Blackburn were fortunate not to have been on the end of a cricket score and that against a team with acres in reserve. For 11 minutes in the second half, United had Berbatov, Rooney, Ronaldo and Carlos Tévez on the pitch and Blackburn did not know what had hit them.

“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Ince said. “You can spend all week discussing tactics and personnel, and I probably thought about playing 20,000 different teams, but at the end of the day when a team is that good, sometimes you can’t do anything about it. We tried hard and went in there with a lot of confidence, but when they play like that they’re awesome.”

If United’s first goal owed something to good fortune — Vidic planted an elbow on the jaw of Jason Brown that Bennett failed to spot and with the Blackburn goalkeeper out of the equation, Wes Brown nodded home Rooney’s cross — there was nothing lucky about their second.

Berbatov has been criticised for apparently not working hard enough, but it was the Bulgaria striker, deep in United’s half, who intercepted a pass from Stephen Warnock and triggered a classic counter-attack. Thirteen touches and 18 seconds later the ball was in the Blackburn net, a sweeping move involving Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs, Brown and Ronaldo finished with aplomb by Rooney, who arced a shot into the far corner for his third goal in as many matches for United.

Rooney and Ronaldo could have had hat-tricks, while Berbatov was at the heart of everything that United did well, his passing visionary, his speed of thought imperious.

Jason Brown had woken at 5 that morning panicking about what he was about to face and his apprehension was well placed. “I was watching Sky Sports at 5 in the morning,” the Blackburn goalkeeper said. “I was looking at it and they were saying Rooney was doubtful, so I was thinking, ‘OK, they’ll bring in Berbatov and Tévez, there you go.’ The nerves obviously sometimes get the better of you a little bit, but that’s all part and parcel of it.”

He is unlikely to be the only one suffering from sleepless nights before a match against United this season.

Blackburn (4-4-2): J Brown 7, A Ooijer5, C Samba 5, R Nelsen 5, M Olsson 4, B Emerton 6, Tugay Kerimoglu 5, S Warnock 6, M G Pedersen 5, R Santa Cruz 6, M Derbyshire 5. Substitutes: J Roberts 6 (for Santa Cruz, 50min), K Treacy 6 (for Pedersen, 58), K Andrews 5 (for Tugay, 68). Not used M Bunn, A Mokoena, C Villanueva, R Fowler.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): E van der Sar 6, W Brown 7, R Ferdinand 7, N Vidic 6, P Evra 6, D Fletcher 7, Anderson 7, W Rooney 8, R Giggs 7, C Ronaldo 7, D Berbatov 8. Substitutes: C Tévez 7 (for Giggs, 66min), J O’Shea (for Evra, 71), Park Ji Sung (for Rooney, 77). Not used: B Amos, Nani, Rafael Da Silva, J Evans.