Ruud van Nistelrooy made an immediate impact on his return from a five-match exile, producing the only goal in Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Ham in front of a record Premiership crowd at Old Trafford.
The Dutch striker had been limited to just 51 minutes of action since the FA Cup defeat at Liverpool on February 18 and his prolonged absence has brought inevitable talk of a summer move away from United.
But in front of a crowd of 69,522 he scored his 20th league goal on the stroke of half-time to earn Alex Ferguson's outfit a seventh straight league win.
There was no Gary Neville or Kieran Richardson while Mikael Silvestre, Ryan Giggs and Louis Saha were all relegated to the substitutes bench as Ferguson made five changes to the side which started the 3-0 win over Birmingham three days earlier.
Injury denied Neville his 501st outing for the club, the England defender's absence paving the way for Gerard Pique to make his first Premiership start.
Pique did not let himself down, the young Spaniard producing a mature performance beyond his teenage years. He forced West Ham's Shaka Hislop into his first serious save before playing a key role in the winning goal.
Hislop had spent the previous 32 minutes a virtual spectator before producing a finger-tip stop after the confident Pique had let fly from 30-yards. From the resulting corner kick, Patrice Evra hit the post with a snap shot during a rare moment of first-half uncertainty by the visitors defence.
All eyes were on van Nistelrooy but his recent lack of action appeared to have left him rusty. He hardly troubled the West Ham defence before breaking the deadlock in the dying seconds of the first-half with a trademark finish.
He was in the right place at the right time to sweep the ball past Hislop from seven yards after Pique's header had allowed Park Ji-Sung to glide past Paul Konchesky.
This was not vintage United by any means as West Ham made life difficult for the hosts, and they may have left Manchester with a point had Matthew Etherington and Dean Ashton shown more composure in front of goal.
But this was van Nistelrooy's night as he demonstrated why he is likely to be a big threat at this summer's World Cup for Marco van Basten's Holland.
