Danny Welbeck Heads a New Batch of Manchester United Young Guns

Manchester United went joint-top of the early-season Premier League table with a 3-0 home win over Tottenham Hotspur.

Nothing unusual about that, you might think. The last time Spurs won at Old Trafford was 1989, when Gary Lineker scored the only goal.

But what made this United win remarkable - rather than the erroneous officiating and individual errors that have defined some recent installments of this fixture - was the sheer youthfulness of the side with which the champions secured victory.

This United stating XI had an average age of just 23 years and 191 days, their second-youngest side of the Premier League era. Patrice Evra, 30, dragged that figure up somewhat, but the likes of Danny Welbeck, Chris Smalling, Tom Cleverley, Phil Jones and David de Gea made this team second only to the one that won 1-0 at Hull City back in May 2009 in terms of youthfulness.

That side of two years ago was fielded with a forthcoming Champions League final appearance very much in mind, but the team which vanquished Spurs on Monday night looks more than capable of contributing to United's quest for a 20th league title.

Spurs had a smattering of kids of their own on show, with 21-year-old midfielder Jake Livermore making his first Premier League start and England Under-21 right-back Kyle Walker staking his claim for a regular first-team place.

The Londoners acquitted themselves well for an hour, but without the absent Luka Modric to help them retain the ball and slow the pace down when under pressure it felt inevitable they would eventually relent.

Welbeck in particular shone for the hosts. The young striker started his third-straight game with Javier Hernandez recovering and Dimitar Berbatov benched against his former club. It was a fair assumption to make not so long ago that Welbeck's selection would compensate for Hernandez's predatory instinct and Berbatov's technique and creativity with his pace and power, but the 20-year-old showed his more than just that in his locker.

The Manchester-born striker - who has turned his back on Ghana, the birthplace of his parents, to represent England - showed reactions and finishing ability worthy of Chicharito as he leapt in anticipation of Cleverley's smart cross to head past Brad Friedel. In addition, the instinctive backheel to set up Anderson for a simple but killer second goal would have drawn an approving nod from Berbatov as the Bulgarian looked on from the bench. 

When Welbeck made his United debut in 2008, his height and athletic yet bulky frame seemed to have him destined to be yet another young English footballer who was more comfortable sprinting after a ball than controlling and using it once they got there.

But an impressive loan spell at Sunderland last year saw a winter run of six goals in eight league games, proving that this particular youngster was capable of development. That run was curtailed by a knee injury and Steve Bruce's side then plummeted down the table, though the sale of Darren Bent to Aston Villa was undoubtedly a bigger factor in that. 

With a front line of Rafael van der Vaart playing off Jermain Defoe unable to adequately hold up the play or defend from the front, Tottenham's midfield began to tire and become more porous as the game dragged on past the hour mark.

The visitor's central unit began to creak and splinter as it was squeezed and disrupted by Welbeck's tireless tracking back, but also by Chris Smalling's contribution down the flank. The defender, who a little over three years was on the books at non-league Maidstone Town, looks every inch a fixture at right-back for United and perhaps for England in the future. His constant bombing down that side gave Benoit Assou-Ekotto all sorts of trouble, and two of United's three goals came as a result of crosses from that area - Cleverley for Welbeck's opener and Ryan Giggs for Wayne Rooney's header to make it 3-0.

The big-money additions of De Gea, Jones and Ashley Young will undoubtedly all have a big part to play in United's title defence but in Welbeck they have yet another player of their own making who looks set to terrorise defences for the Red Devils for many a year.