It was the fifth championship triumph of Alex Ferguson's reign, but the first to be clinched at Old Trafford, and the theatre of dreams partied accordingly.
Beautiful goals from Beckham and Cole furnished United with the three points they needed to claim their crown, but not before Spurs had temporarily silenced the fretful multitude by taking the lead.
As the season reached an unbearably tense climax, the drama was unremitting from first to last. After four minutes Yorke nearly scored at the near post following a Giggs cross, then came even closer when an attempted clearance by Walker rebounded from the Tobagan against a post, only for the keeper to grasp the spinning ball on the line.
Then both Giggs and Yorke went close as United dominated, but Tottenham went ahead after 25 minutes when Iversen nodded on to Ferdinand, who won his race with Johnsen and scooped the ball cleverly over Schmeichel. Thereafter the hosts created chance after chance but Scholes, Yorke and Beckham all failed to register and Old Trafford was awash with anxiety.
The atmosphere was transformed from anxious to expectant with goals either side of the break. First it was from Scholes to Giggs to Scholes to Beckham, and the England star netted with a rasping, angled drive which Walker touched but could not repel. Then Gary Neville dispatched a long pass into the penalty box and Cole controlled the ball deftly before dinking it exquisitely over Walker from six yards. Old Trafford went crazy. But that was not the end of it.
Opportunities to make the prize safe were missed and when news filtered through of an Arsenal goal at Highbury, nerve ends became frazzled. The title could have slipped away with one mistake - and Spurs battled purposefully - but there were no more goals. Thus the Reds extended their unbeaten run to 31 matches and became Champions for the Third time.
