Chris Coleman suggested that José Mourinho “will be letting my tyres down now”. If the Chelsea manager is bristling, it will not be because Fulham failed to grasp the victory that their performance deserved but because events at Craven Cottage underlined why the Barclays Premiership title is on its way to the North West.

This was a difficult match for United. They were feeling the physical and emotional strains of the controversial victory over Lille in the Champions League on Tuesday – but still they took three points. They faced a Fulham team who lifted their game to a degree that no other side in the bottom half of the table would be capable of, but still United won. The celebrations in the visiting team’s camp at the end will only be more heartfelt when the players are doing a celebratory jig around the Premiership trophy.

“These are the games that decide if you are going to be champions or let Chelsea back in,” Edwin van der Sar, the United goalkeeper, said. Sir Alex Ferguson called the match “the most difficult game we’ve had all season”.

Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona coach, was lampooned last week for throwing on forward after forward against Liverpool at the Nou Camp as his team slipped to defeat in the Champions League, but that was because his tactic failed. Ferguson did the same on Saturday and was held in general awe because his team snatched the win.

“I wouldn’t have been happy with a point at any stage,” the United manager said. “I wanted all our goalscorers to be on the pitch.”

Even so, it always looked as if it would be Cristiano Ronaldo who would make the difference. The Portugal winger was as lively at the death as he had been at the start and in the 88th minute he brushed off a couple of ineffectual challenges to give United victory.

It was the only juncture at which Fulham appeared second-rate and Clint Dempsey, the American brought in by Coleman last month, reacted so slowly as Ronaldo skipped past him that you had to wonder if he had done his homework on the stars of the Premiership.

“When the ball hit the back of the net it was a fantastic feeling,” Ronaldo said. “Sixteen [Premiership] goals is good for me, but I have ten games left and I hope to score more. That is why I am working hard.” United are far from a one-man team, but you sense that only if Ronaldo suffers an injury will the title race begin to open up.

Fulham had started the scoring when Van der Sar rushed off his goalline in response to Simon Davies breaking free, only for the ball to fall to Brian McBride, whose shot went in off a post. The home team were fizzing with energy and style but conceded an equaliser that was against the run of play but exquisitely executed. Ryan Giggs’s volley was so perfectly struck it almost defied the video replay.

“He [Giggs] has been a bit underrated in the past couple of years, but you can play Giggsy anywhere,” Coleman, a former Wales teammate of the United winger, said. “He may have lost half a yard over ten yards, but he still gets into those places because he’s thinking quicker because he’s got such a football brain.”

Van der Sar accepted responsibility for McBride’s strike, but he also prevented Davies from scoring what would have been the goal of the season when the former Everton and Tottenham Hotspur midfield player controlled the ball, swivelled and shot towards the corner.

Coleman heaped scorn on Peter Walton, the referee, for failing to award his team a penalty when Van der Sar bundled over Heidar Helguson late on, but that it was a penalty was clear only from the view behind the goalmouth, to which Walton had no access.

Coleman concluded that the big clubs do not want video-assisted refereeing because it would take away the inherent bias in their favour. The bias towards the title, meanwhile, is United’s.