Manchester United took another step towards an unprecedented quintuple following a penalty shoot-out victory over previous holders Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup final at Wembley.Having lifted the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan before Christmas, United have been touted as potentially unstoppable in all competitions this season and, as 120 minutes of tense action ended in stalemate, Anderson scored a decisive spot-kick to defeat Spurs and allow Sir Alex Ferguson's squad to dream of glory on five fronts.
Defence of the Premier League appears a certainty when a game in hand and seven-point lead is taken into account, while the reigning European kings are well placed against Inter Milan in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League and an FA Cup quarter-final with Fulham awaits on 8th March.
The League Cup was perhaps the least glamorous of the accolades United had their eye on at the start of 2008/09 but the men from the North West will have been well aware that, in order to live up to their billing, the first piece of silverware available on the domestic calendar needed to be secured.
Ferguson, already a two-time winner of the competition, was never going to allow varying priorities to breed an abject attitude among his players, but United did not have it all their own way in front of 88,217 spectators at the home of English football.
Spurs battled United all the way but after a goalless 90 minutes and extra-time, Jamie O'Hara and David Bentley failed from the penalty spot to give United a dramatic victory.
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