Leeds manager Simon Grayson admitted his side were taught a lesson by Manchester United in the Carling Cup.

The West Yorkshire outfit approached their Carling Cup third-round tie at Elland Road with high hopes of repeating their 2010 FA Cup triumph over United.

Instead, the contest was over by half-time as the visitors raced into a 3-0 lead which they defended until the end.

“People don’t see how hard Manchester United work and how powerful they are,” said Grayson.

“They are playing at the top level because they have that fantastic desire to do it every week.

“The team they put out could have beaten a host of Premier League sides. They caused us a lot of problems and it shows the gulf that is between us.”

It says a lot about the champions’ present strength in depth that strike pairing Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov were making their first starts of the season.

Indeed, Owen had not contributed a single kick to the Red Devils’ impressive start to the campaign.

However, he soon made up for that, scoring twice to take his current tally to 11 goals in 12 starts - a run that goes back to October 2009, underlining the problems he has had just getting a game.