Manchester United 4 Aston Villa 0: Ronaldo and Rooney's Brazilian blend brews up a cup-laden season

"That's why we're champions." Manchester United fans were singing the words on Saturday evening, just as they have been all season, but not until now, not even after the sound and fury of last week's demolition of Liverpool, have they offered a more probable description of how this season will shake out.

United are not quite there yet, but four more wins and a draw will do it. After 90 minutes filled with appreciative nods and knowing smiles between players who knew this was among their season's best, it was all a diplomatic Martin O'Neill could do to demur from suggesting that his side had just been defeated by the team which will take the title.

"In terms of the Premiership... that was really great stuff," he said, falteringly. It was left to Wayne Rooney to best define the performance when he said, without a trace of hyperbole: "Growing up I used to love watching Brazil and the football we play is similar to the football Brazil play. To play in this team, I love it."

If the Liverpool game was a lesson in self-composure, this was just a lesson; a performance as slick and orchestrated as Arsenal's – 15 miles down the M61 – was chaotic, with Sir Alex Ferguson almighty enough on an evening of biblical conditions to orchestrate three substitutions a minute past the hour, then enjoy such mounting domination that Rooney applauded one crossfield pass from Paul Scholes even before it had arrived, towards the end.

Many, including Villa's manager, measure United's progress this last year by Cristiano Ronaldo's evolution – "he has gone on to be exceptional," O'Neill said – and even the way he boots the pre-match warm-up balls towards the dugout, crossing his right leg behind his standing leg for what they know in the trade as the rabona, is imperious. There are the tricks that work – like the delicious flick with his right heel through Martin Laursen's legs which brought his 35th goal of the season – and the ones that don't come off as intended, like the right-foot flick which was meant to release Patrice Evra but ended up as a defence-splitting assist for Rooney to score, anyway. Ronaldo, still shaking his head two minutes after that first goal, just cannot believe his own luck at times.

But that is the window dressing. There is a difference between playing an Aston Villa side so short on personnel that their manager is forced to convert midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker to right-back and a side homing in on a Scudetto and intent on raining on United's parade, as Roma will be tomorrow night in the Italian capital. As O'Neill observed, the later stages of European competition can be down to the odd unscripted break or two – "Roma is another day, it's [down to] fine detail; the bounce of the ball," he said, – and if that bounce is a bad one, it will be to Rooney that Ferguson will turn.

That is why the manager's broadest grin was reserved for the moment his striker latched on to the misplaced Ronaldo flick, rounded Scott Carson, tapped in his first league goal at Old Trafford since October and stared into the rain-filled night sky in near disbelief. "I thought he was never going to score," Ferguson quipped – which, considering the shot Rooney had screwed wide of the left post five minutes before the goal, might have been no exaggeration.

Ryan Giggs, as aware as any that Rooney tends to score freely when he finally breaks a duck, was the first to mob him and within 15 minutes or so Rooney had duly delivered a second, slotting home from an intended Ronaldo pass this time.

Ferguson's optimism, as his side fly out to Italy this morning, resides in the form of the old hands, too. Giggs' second-half display was only marginally eclipsed by Scholes who, socks around his ankles, was a man in utter command of his own turf again. His telling pass to Ronaldo presaged the cross from which Carlos Tevez escaped Reo-Coker to deposit in United's second.

It all made rather a mockery of the European aspirations O'Neill was still resolutely clinging to. "With the exception of Portsmouth, the results didn't go badly for us today, though... that sounds a bit mad," he said – and indeed it did.

The groin strain which saw John Carew limp off before half-time does not ease O'Neill's worries, though Reo-Coker performed admirably in his new-found role.

The Villa fans' musical range was also more limited and ultimately included "We can see you sneaking out." This was evidently not a reference to Giggs who – just as that song struck up moments before the end – casually strolled down the touchline with a drink, disappeared down the tunnel and, such was United's supremacy, never showed again.

Goals: Ronaldo (17) 1-0; Tevez (33) 2-0; Rooney (53) 3-0; Rooney (70) 4-0.

Manchester United (4-4-2): Kuszczak; Brown, Vidic, Ferdinand (Hargreaves, 61), Evra (O'Shea, 61); Ronaldo, Carrick (Anderson, 61), Scholes, Giggs; Tevez, Rooney. Substitutes not used: Foster (gk), Park.

Aston Villa (4-4-2): Carson; Reo-Coker, Mellberg, Laursen, Bouma (Osbourne, 80); Agbonlaor, Petrov, Barry, Young; Harewood (Salifou, 69), Carew (Maloney, 41). Substitutes not used: Taylor (gk), Knight.

Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire).

Booked: Manchester United Vidic; Aston Villa Bouma

Man of the match: Rooney.

Attendance: 75,932