*Solskjaer’s late strike rewards impeccable United*

Every yuletide Norway sends Britain a fir tree and this Christmas Manchester United have been especially grateful for the spruce finishing of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose goals have enabled them to regain and retain their eight-point lead at the top of the Premiership.

Yesterday, in the continued absence of the injured Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole plus the suspended Dwight Yorke, the Norwegian striker scored for the fifth time in as many league matches to bring United a late but thoroughly deserved victory against an Aston Villa side, who seldom lose but have yet to rediscover the art of winning on a regular basis.

Solskjaer’s sharply taken header five minutes from the end denied Villa the muted satisfaction of taking a point from a game in which they were at times outplayed.

The goal crowned an impeccable display of passing and movement by United which suggested that by the end of the season the Liverpool defeat will have turned out to be more a hiccup than a convulsion. Certainly John Gregory, the Villa manager, was not arguing with the notion that Sir Alex Ferguson’s six-times champions are as well set as ever for a first championship hat-trick.

“It’s a foregone conclusion; unless Barcelona come with a late run,” Gregory observed wrily. “Today all 10 of their outfield players were totally comfortable with their passing, which was simple and effective from start to finish.”

True enough, although Ferguson admitted that “while Ole Solskjaer’s a great finisher and might have had four today, when you create chances and can’t get a goal it’s always possible you might not get something from the game.”

A similar thought probably occurred to Villa, except for them it was less a case of chances being missed than almost none being created. Fresh from a 2-1 win at Leeds, Gregory’s side might have been expected to stretch Manchester United more than they did but with Dion Dublin, who missed Saturday’s game because his wife had just had a baby, on the bench until the final 25 minutes the Villa attack appeared set on tickling the opposition to death with a feather duster.

With Paul Merson forced deep by Nicky Butt and Roy Keane, and the influence of David Ginola fleeting and peripheral, Gilles de Bilde enjoyed scant support as he took on Gary Neville and Wes Brown at the heart of United’s defence. After half-time, with Merson making closer contact with the front two, Villa achieved some sort of attacking momentum and just past the hour Ginola cut in from the left before centring for De Bilde’s goalbound header to force an instinctive, stretching save from Fabien Barthez.

Had Villa taken the lead it would have made a nonsense of the game’s prevailing pattern; it would also have punished United for some earlier profligacy. Certainly Solskjaer should have done better than drag his shot wide after Barthez, way out of goal, had caught Villa’s defence square with a perfect example of route one.

Just past the half-hour Scholes’s run saw him well placed to meet David Beckham’s cross at the far post, but David James managed to keep his header out. After the break Scholes missed the target with a shot and a header, and when Dublin arrived an improving Villa could glimpse something more than a bland, blank draw.

Then Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane worked the ball out to Beckham on the right and from another of his precise crosses, this one to the near post, Solskjaer settled the contest with a nod. United’s last Boxing Day defeat was at Villa Park in 1989. Yesterday, for Gregory and his players, that result looked very much a ghost of Christmas past.