In modern football, most managers favour wide players who drift into central, creative positions or cut inside on to their stronger foot, driving powerfully towards goal. The simple, old-fashioned winger who gets down the line and whips in a cross has fallen out of favour.

Antonio Valencia, however, is keeping the tradition alive. The Ecuadorian is an inconsistent player, partly because of his style: he is unable to drift inside to influence the game, depending upon good distribution from central midfielders to become involved. When on form, however, Valencia's partnership with Rafael da Silva down the right is one of Manchester United's biggest strengths – they have torn apart opponents as formidable as Manchester City and Chelsea in recent years, and Aston Villa had no response to their strength here.

Rafael da Silva and Antonio Valencia attacked Antonio Luna, and all 10 of United’s chances were created from the right. Illustration: Graphic

Villa's Spanish left-back Antonio Luna was overloaded and his challenges were consistently unsuccessful as he struggled to cope with the sheer directness of Valencia and Da Silva's forward runs, and they both provided crosses for Danny Welbeck's first two goals. On both occasions Adnan Januzaj made excellent runs from the opposite flank to get into a goalscoring position, the type of thing that does not come naturally to many young wingers. In all, United created 10 goalscoring chances – all from the right wing.

Luna was exposed by his team-mates: Gabriel Agbonlahor sprinted back manfully when Da Silva threatened to burst forward, but his primary task was supporting Christian Benteke, and he was often too advanced to contribute defensively. Yacouba Sylla could have shuttled out to the flank to offer Luna more protection, and even having a centre-back comfortable playing at left-back did not help.

Nathan Baker always appeared a yard to slow to cover, and made a succession of dangerous tackles.

Villa were not particularly overrun in midfield, they were just completely exposed in the left-back zone.