Wayne Rooney roared back to form with a hat-trick to lead Manchester United to a 4-0 win at Bolton Wanderers which helped them leapfrog Chelsea at the top of the Premier League on Saturday.
Rooney, who had not scored since the first day of the season, struck after 10, 16 and 89 minutes and Cristiano Ronaldo also netted as United inflicted a first home defeat on Bolton.
United are on 25 points, ahead on goal difference of Chelsea, who won 2-0 at Sheffield United earlier.
Bolton are third on 20 with Portsmouth up to fourth on 19 after a 3-1 home triumph over Reading.
Arsenal have 18 points after a 1-1 home draw with Everton (17) while Liverpool beat Aston Villa 3-1 and Wigan Athletic won 1-0 at Fulham.
Watford against Tottenham Hotspur finished goalless.
EARLY STRIKES
Manchester United flew out of the blocks at Bolton and Rooney put them ahead in the 10th minute - his first goal in 11 games for club and country since he scored two in United's opening day win over Fulham and the first Bolton had conceded at the Reebok this season.
The England forward, who turned 21 on Tuesday, curled in an exceptional second six minutes later.
Bolton steadied the ship for a while and briefly threatened but great work by Louis Saha set up Ronaldo for the third in the 82nd minute and Rooney broke clear to complete his treble two minutes from time.
"It was a fantastic result for us, in the first 25 minutes we could have been four up," United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. "It was great football, I really enjoyed it."
Of Rooney's goalscoring return he said: "He was due to score at some point, the longer these things go on with strikers they begin to doubt things but you saw as soon as he scored his confidence went up."
Chelsea had few difficulties in beating Sheffield United but it might have been different if the champions' stand-in goalkeeper Hilario had not saved a 17th-minute penalty by Danny Webber - United's third miss from three spot kicks this season.
United keeper Paddy Kenny then misjudged a Frank Lampard free kick late in the first half and Michael Ballack headed the second soon after the break allowing the visitors to ease off ahead of Tuesday's Champions League trip to Barcelona.
"We had to fight against a team who play very direct. They put a lot of long balls forward, they gave us a difficult game," said Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho.
"From that Hilario save the team started playing together and from then I thought we deserved the win and could have scored more goals.
VILLA BEATEN
The division's last unbeaten record disappeared in emphatic style as Villa went down at Liverpool, the home side's three goals coming in the first half from Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch and Luis Garcia.
Gabriel Agbonlahor pulled one back for Villa in the 56th but Liverpool were safe winners to move above Villa and into the top half of the table.
Portsmouth continued their unexpectedly impressive start to the season with a convincing home success.
An early Brynjar Gunnarsson own goal set them on their way, Nwankwo Kanu doubled the lead in the 52nd minute and Pedro Mendes capped a fine win with a 20-metre drive in the 66th.
Everton claimed their first away point against Arsenal in almost 11 years after Tim Cahill's seventh goal of the season put them ahead, Robin van Persie salvaging a draw for the Londoners, who had won their previous five league games.
© 2024 Rediff.com -