Manchester United maintained their 100 per cent start to the season with a routine, but not flamboyant, 2-1 victory over Premiership new boys Watford at Vicarage Road.
Sir Alex Ferguson's league leaders were, as most predicted beforehand, on top for large parts of the game, but their victory was as much about the the Golden Boys' defensive indecision as it was two examples of clinical finishing. 
First, the Watford rearguard was all at sea when Louis Saha found Mikael Silvestre to fire United into an early lead and then a loose pass from substitute Matthew Spring was pounced upon by Ryan Giggs, who celebrated his 600th United start with the winning goal, thus maintaining his record of scoring in every Premiership season.
But while the defeat leaves Watford still looking for their first win of the campaign, they can again take heart from their display.
Established top-flight sides Fulham and Charlton conceded more goals in defeat against United than Aidy Boothroyd's battlers, and Damien Francis became the first opposing player to beat Edwin van der Sar this season.
And, had Darius Henderson chose to go for goal instead of inexplicably squaring the ball across the six-yard box when unmarked at the back post, the United keeper would have conceded a second and the Hornets would have had the lead. Instead, they were 2-1 down less than 60 seconds later.
After Watford keeper Richard Lee, in for the ineligible Ben Foster, had tipped over an inswinging Michael Carrick cross from the left and Cristiano Ronaldo had headed narrowly wide from the resulting corner, United took the lead in the 12th minute. Saha found Silvestre in plenty of space on the left side of the Watford penalty area and the left-back had time to pick his spot before droving a low shot across Lee and into the far corner.
A Gavin Mahon drive might have caused van der Sar problems had it not been for John O'Shea's block, but then Lee kept Watford in the contest with an instinctive near post save to keep out Saha's flick from an inswinging Giggs' corner.
United continued to cause the hosts problems with their dominance in midfield and Boothroyd decided he'd seen enough after 31 minutes, sacrificing the width of Hameur Bouazza in favour of another central midfield player in Spring. And within three minutes Watford were level.
Marlon King played the ball out to the right where Ashley Young left Silvestre for dead with an excellent touch before squaring the ball across the six-yard box for Francis to score with the simplest of tap-ins.
Giggs and Ronaldo both had chances to restore United's lead before the interval, and soon after the restart Ole Gunnar Solskjaer headed a Ronaldo cross back across goal and narrowly wide.
But it was Watford who somehow failed to go in front after 51 minutes after they were awarded a free-kick 25 yards from goal. King's shot on the turn was deflected into the path of Henderson, coming in at the far post, and he opted to square the ball across the six-yard box when he looked odds-on to go for goal from barely three yards out.
The price of that miss was paid within 60 seconds. Giggs was onto Spring's sloppy pass in a flash and confidently rounded Lee before finding the back of the net.
After that though, United appeared content to take their foot off the pedal, although Saha should have scored a third when put through by Giggs but he was rather outfoxed by Lee, who made a good smothering save.
But the visitors were almost made to pay for their failure to put the points totally to bed deep into injury-time when Lloyd Doyley' s long throw was flicked on and the ball sat up invitingly for Francis in the area, but the striker was unable to keep his attempt down. 
So three games played and just a single point leaves Watford with plenty to ponder ahead of their next fixture, away to Bolton Wanderers after the International break next weekend.
Golden Boys man of the match: Danny Shittu.