Who's better: Manchester United's Untouchables or Arsenal's Invincibles?

In a rare moment of self-deprecation, Peter Schmeichel once suggested back in the 1990s that Manchester United could have won matches with a dustbin in goal and, after keeping a fourteenth consecutive clean sheet in the Barclays Premier League, Edwin van der Sar, his long-awaited successor, may just be starting to feel the same way.

This utterly comprehensive victory took United five points clear of Liverpool at the top of the table — a lead that they will fully expect to have extended to eight points by the time the Merseyside club take on Manchester City on Sunday afternoon — and, to judge from the way that they dominated Fulham from start to finish last night, with goals from Paul Scholes, Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney, on his return from injury, anyone waiting for Sir Alex Ferguson’s team to stumble may be in for a long wait.

Never mind their next defeat. Right now it is hard to know when the next ball will end up in the United net. No team have scored against them in the league since Arsenal’s 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium on November 8 and, against a Fulham team who have not won away from home all season, their goal was rarely under threat.

Van der Sar’s record-breaking run, which stands at 1,302 minutes without conceding a league goal, has earned him the overdue acclaim of the Stretford End, but, after this match against one of his former clubs, he might be struggling to remember his last significant save, such has been his team’s dominance in recent weeks.

After a series of recent masterclasses from Ryan Giggs, it fell to Scholes to claim the plaudits last night. The former England midfield player is not finding it easy to hold back the hands of time, as can be gleaned from him tending to start matches only against lower-class opponents these days, but, against a Fulham team who gave him all the time and space he needs to weave his magic and spray passes 50 yards to their target, he was majestic.

He even scored the opening goal, his first of the season, although it may not be an exaggeration to paraphrase Schmeichel and suggest that a dustbin would have done a better job than Mark Schwarzer in trying to keep it out.

The former Middlesbrough No 1 has been one of the league’s more consistent goalkeepers in recent years but, while Van der Sar at the other end was going through some vigorous exercises just to keep himself warm, the Australian was enduring a night that he will want to forget.

The first goal, in the twelfth minute, came straight from the training ground, but Scholes, picked out on the edge of the penalty area by Michael Carrick’s corner, admitted afterwards that “the keeper will probably be disappointed he didn’t save it”, instead helping the shot on its way.

Given that Scholes’s technique in such situations is well-known, dating back to a famous goal scored away to Bradford City in March 2000, Fulham’s lack of marking was astonishing — until, that is, you saw that Park Ji Sung, intentionally or otherwise, had distracted their attention with a decoy run.

If that was an ugly goal to concede, the second, on the half-hour, was no better from Schwarzer’s viewpoint, but, examined from another angle, it was the culmination of a 22-pass move. Again, Carrick and Scholes were involved at the sharp end, combining on the edge of the penalty area before the latter clipped a clever pass over the defence.

John O’Shea, at full stretch, hooked the ball towards the six-yard box and, rather than clear the danger, Schwarzer and Aaron Hughes treated the ball like it was an unexploded bomb. Berbatov, not one to pass up such a gift, nipped in to score from six yards, his twelfth goal for United and most certainly his easiest.