The two outstanding individuals in a tediously low-key game were David Beckham and Paul Scholes, which would to be good news for England but for the latter needing a hernia operation which may take place as soon as this week, thereby putting him out of the play-offs against Scotland.

If so Scholes signed off in some style, not only scoring the first goal but spraying passes around from midfield with great accuracy. Yet having said that Scholes, unlike Beckham, rarely achieves consistent brilliance, and was probably annoyed with himself at half time for already having passed up a hat-trick.

The midfielder scored with what was possibly the most difficult of the chances which fell his way in the first half, but had he managed to keep the 36th minute volley from Denis Irwin’s cross on target he might have been rewarded with the goal of the season.

His control let him down in the 18th minute, when Andy Cole headed down Beckham’s cross but he was unable to produce a finish in time facing an open goal, and the same thing happened again just after half an hour when another telling cross - inevitably from the great provider on the right - eluded Cole and Dwight Yorke and was met by a ghastly first touch from Scholes.

In between, Beckham had come up with a low cross from the right by way of a change for Scholes to read his intentions perfectly, darting to the near post to flick a first-time shot past a surprised David James. Surprised at the shot that is, not that it should have come from a right wing cross.

Beckham spent more or less the whole afternoon doing just what he wanted on the right, and probably wishing he could be marked by Gareth Barry every week. The Villa defender has plenty of talent, but would not be everyone’s choice of left back, especially against a winger as dangerous as Beckham. Villa’s back line looked like a back three plus Mark Delaney, which does not necessarily make a four, and its shortcomings were fully exposed by United’s second goal on the stroke of half-time. Ryan Giggs’ overhit cross from the left was ignored by Barry but gratefully collected by Beckham, whose cut back from the byline was put away with fact efficiency by Cole.

That was game over, despite a first half-hour which had seen the visitors exploit uncertainty in a United defence featuring Mikael Silvestre with Jaap Stam in the centre, only to spurn a succession of reasonable chances. Benito Carbone was too high with a snap-shot after Silvestre had been caught in possession, George Boateng blazed over from a carefully constructed opening on the right, and the normally reliable Dion Dublin missed the best chance of the lot after 20 minutes after Boateng and Ian Taylor had carved United wide open.

Even when United are only playing fitfully well you cannot expect to take anything away from Old Trafford with finishing like that, and though Villa had a couple of opportunities to pull a goal back at the start of the second half, by that stage they lacked the conviction.

Carbone, always eye-catching but not especially influential in his second game for Villa, saw an optimistic bicycle kick flash wide, then managed to get behind the United defence with a clear sight of goal only to be denied by a masterly recovering block by Stam.

Silvestre then cleared off his own line after Mark Bosnich dived at the Italian’s feet but only partly stopped his shot, at which point United appeared to decide enough was enough and gave Villa a finishing lesson at the other end.

Beckham and Scholes had been much quieter as United coasted through the second half, though predictably they were both involved in the third goal. Beckham’s cross from the right was daintily diverted by Scholes into the path of Roy Keane, and Villa had to stand and watch as the United captain arrived to beat James from outside the penalty area.

Villa’s fans enjoyed themselves enormously chanting ‘You fat bastard’ every time Bosnich took a goal kick, but left with precious little else to cheer about.