Throwing shapes: Ryan Giggs strokes home his first of two penalties as Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 to go back to the top of the Premier League

The pressure is now back on Chelsea. "It's been theirs to lose since they beat us at Old Trafford," said Alex Ferguson, a smile across his face with the three points from yesterday's victory over Tottenham safely nestled in his back pocket and his side back on top of the league. Carlo Ancelotti's side may not be tripped up against Stoke City at Stamford Bridge this afternoon but this result means they now have no margin for error against Liverpool at Anfield next weekend. The champions have two games left to play, away to Sunderland and at home to Stoke, and you can't really see them dropping points in either fixture, even if the United manager hinted that Wayne Rooney's groin injury is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season.

As for yesterday, you wouldn't classify it as a vintage United performance but they did enough to earn all three points against what Ferguson labelled "the league's in-form team". Tottenham, as it happened, were nowhere as effective on the ball as they had been in their victories over Arsenal and Chelsea – Harry Redknapp's decision not to play Luka Modric on the left of midfield and Gareth Bale at left-back was a contributing factor – but once again, they worked just as hard without it. It contributed to a slow-burner of a game, one where United created the clearer opportunities, without exactly blowing the visitors away.

All told, it would be a little trite to put United's victory solely down to some extraordinarily clumsy defending by Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Wilson Palacios, which resulted in Ryan Giggs tucking away two second-half penalties, but it was a significant factor. That, though, would be forgetting a moment of pure genius by Nani, which restored United's lead on 81 minutes following Ledley King's equaliser. Played in by a clever touch by substitute Federico Macheda on the edge of the box, the other Portuguese winger drew Heurelho Gomes in the Tottenham goal and chipped the ball delightfully over the Brazilian keeper from eight yards. For that moment alone, they deserve this title race with Chelsea to go down to the wire.

Yet there was nothing dominant about United yesterday. Dimitar Berbatov, on his own up front in the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney, was once again his sporadic best. He's clearly not allowing the criticism of his lazy demeanour to effect the way he plays – the Bulgarian doesn't run about the place for the sake of keeping people happy – but he was United's most dangerous threat against his old club. His instinctive poke from eight yards in the first half would have nestled in the back of the net were it not for a brilliant block by King and at the start of the second period, his clever header across goal missed Darren Fletcher's right foot by a hair's breadth. But that, from Berbatov and United, was about it bar Nani's moment of genius and the two calmly taken penalties from Giggs, the first spot-kicks the player has ever scored in the Premier League. Who'd have thought it?

As for the penalties, they were suicidal from a Tottenham side who have now conceded six spot-kicks in their past five games. Assou-Ekotto was the first culprit, taking down Patrice Evra inside the box on 58 minutes, not long after the French full-back threw-up his breakfast on the sideline. "We had a few who were a bit sick"" said Ferguson. Giggs stroked the kick to Gomes's right and the tension around Old Trafford visible lifted. The second penalty was just as blatant, Palacios bundling into Nani on 85 minutes and the veteran Welsh winger made no mistake to score his side's third.

But the real drama came in between all that. With United 1-0 up, Tottenham threw caution to the wind by bringing on Aaron Lennon and Eidur Gudjohnsen and returning Modric to the centre of midfield. They were just beginning to stroke the ball with some authority when King nodded them level from a corner. Rafael's attempt to clear the Tottenham captain's header off the line was laughable but there was nothing funny about United's position at this point in proceedings.

"You're thinking 'we don't deserve this, but we have to get back into it'," said Ferguson and Nani did that for him. "It shows the audacity of the lad," said the United manager of the winger's finish. "To do that at that point in the game showed tremendous courage. It was an absolutely brilliant finish. Whether he should have actually hit the ball properly or crossed it, I don't know but 10 out of 10 for pulling it off."