Manchester United 6

Bradford City 0

It's called the Theatre of Dreams, but Bradford City experienced a nightmare at Old Trafford last night.

The 6-0 scoreline not only flattered United, but it did scant justice to City's commendable efforts, but the truth was the Bantams were outplayed by a United team somewhere near the peak of their awesome form despite being without several regulars.

City tried their best, but could simply not match the slick passing and intelligent movement that United employed nor their ruthless finish.

Even when the game was won, and won handsomely, experienced players like David Beckham and Teddy Sheringham were still looking to score more goals - such is their hunger for success.

Sheringham scored twice and might have had a hat-trick while Beckham scored United's last goal and laid on the second.

It's a measure of the strength of United's squad that they could win so convincingly without the suspended Roy Keane, the injured Jaap Stam as well as Dwight Yorke and could also afford to leave Paul Scholes, Phil Neville, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ryan Giggs on the bench.

The result and performance is a chilling warning to the rest of the Premiership that United are determined to hang on to their championship trophy.

As far as City are concerned, they must quickly recover from this mauling as they prepare to face another championship contender, Arsenal at Valley Parade on Saturday.

There is no point dwelling on a defeat like this. After all, City's season will not be judged on how they fare against United because few clubs could have lived with them in this sort of form.

It must be said, though, that United do seem to enjoy playing City. In three meetings since the Bantams won promotion to the Premiership, United have scored 14 goals without reply.

City manager Chris Hutchings had been expected to adopt a similar formation to the one that served them well for at least half the game at Liverpool on the opening day of the season with five players in midfield and only one striker.

Instead, he stuck to his promise of being positive and adopted an orthodox 4-4-2 formation with Dean Windass partnering Benito Carbone up front, Peter Atherton in the centre of the defence in place of the injured Andrew O'Brien and Gunnar Halle making his season debut at right back.

"I thought we would come here to be more positive than we were at Anfield," he said, "but it backfired and that is something we have got to think about in the future."

Hutchings was critical about City's performance while admiring United's display.

He said: "We had a couple of chances to get back in the game after they scored their first two goals and if you don't take your chances you are going to get punished as we were.

"We didn't get the ball down and pass it and we didn't do the basic things right.

"United's passing and movement and the quality they have got is why they are at the top of the ladder and it is something all clubs have got to strive for. As far as the second half goals were concerned if you let players of that quality run with the ball and shoot they are going to hit the target."

Once United had gone in front after 11 minutes through Andy Cole there was only going to be one winner. There was an element of luck about the goal as Cole's shot appeared to take a defelection off Atherton as it looped over Clarke's head, but that summed up City's night.

Clarke made a superb save to keep out a fiercely driven shot from Nicky Butt, but he had no chance with United's second goal after 24 minutes from talented South African winger Quinton Fortune after City's defence failed to cut out Beckham's cross.

City rightly claimed that Windass had been fouled by Gary Neville at the start of the move that led to the goal and Windass was booked for protesting. Ultimately, though, there was nothing that City could do could stop United in this form.

Carbone and David Hopkin had sharp chances before half time, but United always carried far more threat and it took a superb save by Clarke to keep out a Beckham trademark 25-yard free kick.

City stuck to their task well in the second half, but they simply had no answer to some superb finishing. Fortune scored the third and his second on the hour with a 30-yard shot after darting through the defence before City's best moment of the match ought to have resulted in a goal after 68 minutes.

Great work down the right by substitute Ashley Ward just three minutes after he came on as a replacement for Lee Sharpe ended with the striker delivering a fine right wing cross into the path of Windass. Unfortunately for City, the striker could only sidefoot the ball against the post with only goalkeeper Fabien Barthez to beat.

A goal at that stage would not have affected the result but it would have been some tangible reward for City's efforts and how United made them pay for the miss.

Three minutes later Sheringham volleyed a superb angled shot into the far corner of the net after a great 60 yard pass from left back Silvestre landed at his feet.

Then, Sheringham added a fifth goal after 81 minutes, heading home at the far post from young midfield player Jonathan Greening's right wing cross before Beckham had the final word four minutes later. The England midfield player turned the ball past Halle before unleashing a low, right foot shot from 25 yards for goal number six.