THE NARROW 1-0 win over Everton on Sunday morning is not much to rave about if you are a Manchester United fan.

But for their rivals like Liverpool and Chelsea, the way the game was played out by the Red Devils says a lot more.

Cristiano Ronaldo is quickly getting back to his best form, the same performance level he reached when he helped Man United to the Premiership and Champions League titles last season.

Sure, he only scored a penalty in the 44th minute to win the game. That brought his tally to 14 goals in total this season, two ahead of team-mates Wayne Rooney and three ahead of Dimitar Berbatov.

But his delicate chips over the packed Everton defence, a cheeky toe-poke that came off the post, a stunning lifting shot that dipped just below the crossbar to force an alert Tim Howard to tip over, show that the old Ronaldo is not only back. It also shows a new Ronaldo emerging.

After becoming Fifa's World Player of the Year earlier this month, Ronaldo has started to show off an impressive variety of skills.

The Portuguese Peacock probably reflected and realised he had to up his game, since Barcelona's Lionel Messi - whom he beat to become World Player of the Year - had a better first half of the season.

In defence, the win over Everton saw Man United rewrite the record books with a 12th successive top-flight clean sheet, with goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar eclipsing the previous league record of 1,104 minutes without conceding a goal, set by Reading's Steve Death in 1979.

What's really significant is that the last player to score against Van der Sar was Arsenal's Samir Nasri in the Gunners' 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium on 8 Nov.

Record

To help Van der Sar extend that record further, Rio Ferdinand is already back from injury to partner Nemanja Vidic in the heart of defence, which is so crucial in this phase of the season.

Rooney should be back soon too, as will left-back Patrice Evra.

Which means even without their big names and the likes of John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher playing, the Man United machine is frighteningly able to keep the momentum going.

The oldies like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville may have lit up games a few times this season.

But they can't be expected to go full steam week in, week out.

Their bad days may lurk around the corner.

And when they do, like when Neville made a few gaffes in his right-back position to allow Everton's Leighton Baines through in the first half, manager Alex Ferguson would rightly substituted him with Wes Brown in the 56th minute.

And he had no complaints or a long face to show.

What about Michael Carrick?

When he was signed by Man United in 2006, fans thought he would be a replacement for Roy Keane behind Scholes.

But he was always meant to be Scholes' replacement as an attacking midfielder, with his range of passing.

Against Everton, he won the penalty Ronaldo converted, and was denied another clear-cut penalty in the second half.

But both incidents showed his dangerous runs into the penalty box, and that may come in useful against teams that pack their defence, as Everton did.

So while the scoreline was narrow, the signs shown by Man United against Everton were certainly ominous.

Be afraid Liverpool and Chelsea.

Be very afraid.