NO MATTER how often Manchester United write the script their supporters will never tire of it. You wouldn’t pay to watch the same movie repeatedly or continually buy the same book but the entertainment business of football is unique.

United down and out before springing off the canvas to knock out their opponent with a quick flurry of blows: how often have we heard it? They even keep using the same fall-guys. For Spurs, leading 2-0 at 6.46pm, trailing 5-2 by 7.08pm, this was almost as bad as their collapse in 2001-02 when they lost 5-3 to United, having been 3-0 ahead at the interval.

Here, United were staring at a result that by Sir Alex Ferguson’s admission would have “blown the title race wide open” after an unfocused first- half performance that their manager summed up aptly: “Too slow. Second to every ball. Casual. No Speed. Played into Tottenham’s hands. We deserved to be down.”

From that, you might surmise the cobwebs were blown away by a half-time hairdryer but according to Wayne Rooney his manager remained calm, instructed United’s players to quicken up their game, predicted that if they scored one goal they might score a hatful and told Carlos Tevez he was coming on for Nani.

Not for the first time, introducing Tevez proved a ploy that rejuvenated United and their supporters. Ferguson must regard the Argentinian as his best substitute since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, though whether this will mean Tevez is retained — for a fee of £22m on top of the £10m already paid to his advisers — or wants to stay, is another matter.

Invigorated by the tonic of Tevez, in 23 heady second-half minutes United forced five goals past Heurelho Gomes. The first was a penalty that, even after watching 20-odd replays, you were unsure should have been given. If big decisions should come with certainty attached to them, perhaps Howard Webb, the referee, got it wrong.

“He’s supposed to be our best referee; if he’s the best, I’d like to see our worst,” said Harry Redknapp, who called for the introduction of video technology to help officials. Even Ferguson did not think it was a penalty. What was certain was the majesty of the pass from Wayne Rooney that let Michael Carrick try to take the ball round Gomes. Carrick was upended but the keeper may have touched the ball first.

Rooney was the pivot upon which every action of United’s comeback turned. He scored the equaliser when Tevez found him on a counterattack and he cut inside to thread a shot through Verdran Corluka’s legs and into a space between Gomes and his near post.

Rooney was also responsible for United’s fourth, calmly chesting down Ronaldo’s cross before striking a shot that Jonathan Woodgate, in the act of attempting to block, merely helped across his own line.

Dimitar Berbatov threw the vitriolic acid directed at him by visiting supporters back in their faces by scrambling in United’s fifth. He forced the ball home after Gomes saved his close-range header.

United’s third goal, the game’s most crucial, was fittingly its best. Patrice Evra fed Rooney, who played a gorgeous cross into the six-yard box, where Ronaldo twisted gymnastically to convert with a diving header. The Portuguese tore off his shirt and hurled it towards the crowd and Rooney, thoughtfully, retrieved it. United may be less inclined to hand back the lead of the Premier League, briefly held by Liverpool yesterday and regained so thrillingly.

If you cannot defend you may as well attack. After these sides’ Carling Cup final stalemate Ferguson had called for excitement. “It’s time we got back to our traditional encounters and brightened things up on the scoring front,” he wrote, hardly expecting to be heeded so precisely.

While Spurs’ back line folded in the second period, United’s had imploded in the first. Signs in previous games that Edwin Van der Sar, Nemanja Vidic and Evra had regained their form proved misleading and Rio Ferdinand was afflicted by his colleagues’ malaise. Rafael Da Silva, so precocious in attack, has much to learn about defending.

Redknapp goes for common-sense coaching and struck on the straightforward ploy of targeting young Rafael with crosses from the opposite flank, mostly by Aaron Lennon, a productive tactic given such centres would also pressure Ferdinand, less aerially dominant than Vidic, and the right of United’s centre-backs. Darren Bent lost him early on to threaten with a header and took advantage to score in the 28th minute. Evra, against livewire Lennon, looked leggy and the winger found Corluka, who crossed for Bent to profit from Ferdinand’s lazy attempt to head clear, get the ball down and smash it past Van der Sar.

Bent owed his selection to the sad circumstances of Jermain Defoe’s absence after the murder of his half-brother. For 45 minutes United’s only real threat came from the free kicks of Ronaldo, with whose legs Wilson Palacios was lucky not to connect when making a two-footed lunge. A red card would have followed if he had.

Three minues after Bent’s goal, Luka Modric put Spurs two ahead. Again, Evra didn’t close down Lennon and with Rafael sucked out of position, he crossed and Modric was free to control and volley home.

Ferguson, who watched stony-faced in the first half, was on his feet doing his best grandad-at-a-wedding jig when the third United goal went in. In contrast, Redknapp did not stop shaking his head when Webb awarded the penalty after Rooney’s 40-yard pass split Spurs’ defence. Ronaldo drove the penalty home after one of his stuttering run-ups, United’s last stutter of an afternoon they started so shakily.

Star man: Wayne Rooney (Man Utd)

Yellow cards: Man Utd: Tevez, Scholes, Ronaldo Tottenham: Woodgate, Jenas, Gomes

Referee: H Webb

Attendance: 75,458

MANCHESTER UTD: Van der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Fletcher (Scholes 61min), Nani (Tevez h-t), Berbatov, Rooney

TOTTENHAM: Gomes, Corluka, Woodgate, King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Palacios, Jenas, Modric, Keane, Bent.